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Essential Quilting Glossary and Terms

Quilting Glossary

Welcome to our comprehensive Quilting Glossary: Your Guide to Essential Terms and Definitions! Whether you're a seasoned quilter or just starting your quilting journey, understanding the language of quilting is essential for success. Our meticulously curated glossary provides you with a valuable resource to demystify the terminology and concepts that are commonly encountered in the world of quilting.

  1. Appliqué: A technique where fabric shapes are sewn onto a background fabric to create a design element, often used in conjunction with machine embroidery.
  1. Backing: The fabric used on the underside of the quilt. This fabric can be a single solid sheet of material, or can be pieced together with left over scraps from the top layer of the quilt.
  1. Batting: A layer of  material, usually made of cotton, polyester, or a blend, used between the quilt top and backing to provide insulation and loft and padding. Usually available in multiply thicknesses and density to accommodate multiple types of projects.
  1. Binding: The fabric strip used to cover and finish the raw edges of a quilt.
  1. Block: A unit of a quilt, often repeated to create the overall design.
  1. Basting: Temporary stitching used to hold the layers of a quilt together before final quilting.
  1. Charm pack: A pre-cut package of 2.5”, 5” or 10” fabric squares, usually containing a variety of coordinating prints.
  1. Fat quarter: A one-fourth yard of fabric that is cut in a specific way, resulting in a larger and squarer piece than a regular quarter yard. Measuring approximately 18” x 22”.
  1. Jelly roll: A pre-cut package of 2.5-inch by 44-inch fabric strips, usually containing a variety of coordinating prints.
  1. Longarm quilting: Quilting done using a longarm quilting machine, which has a long frame and enables the quilter to move the machine over the quilt layers in a precise way.
  1. Piecing: The process of sewing fabric pieces together to create the quilt top.
  1. Quilt sandwich: The layered structure of a quilt, consisting of the quilt top, batting, and backing.
  1. Quilting: The process of stitching the three layers of the quilt sandwich together to create the final quilt.
  1. Sashing: Strips of fabric used to separate and frame quilt blocks.
  1. Stash: A collection of fabric that quilters accumulate over time.
  1. Strip piecing: A technique where fabric strips are sewn together before cutting them into smaller units, such as blocks or triangles.
  1. Quilt guild: An organization or group of quilters who come together to share knowledge, resources, and inspiration.
  1. WIP: Short for "work in progress," referring to a quilt project that is currently being worked on but not yet completed.
  1. UFO: Short for "unfinished object," referring to a part of a quilted project that has been started but not yet finished.
  1. Walking foot: A sewing machine foot with feed dogs on the top that helps to feed multiple layers of fabric evenly during quilting.