Quilting Terms

Quilting Terms

Applique:  A piece of fabric sewn onto the background fabric, generally cut in a decorative shape such as a basket handle, the “Sunbonnet Sue” motif, or floral and animal designs.  Appliqued designs can be sewn on by hand or with machine stitching.

Backing:  The bottom or back layer of a quilt.  Usually a plain fabric, but it can be a print.

Bare Feet:  Effective way of finding lost pins or quilting needles in a carpet.

Batting:  The layer in the center of the quilt sandwich, which gives it warmth and thickness.  Batting can be made of cotton, wool, polyester or blends.

Bias:  A diagonal cut across the surface of a woven fabric.  Fabric cut on the bias stretches easily and needs to be sewn carefully or it will stretch out of shape.

Binding:  A strip of fabric sewn over the edges of all the quilt layers to finish the raw edges and add a decorative finish.

Block:  The basic unit of a quilt, generally repeated in a pattern to make an overall design.

Border:  A strip of fabric sewn around the outside of a quilt top to serve as a frame for the interior pattern (or to make the quilt the desired size).

Crazy Quilt:  A block assembled from irregularly shaped pieces of fabric with no overall design.  A crazy quilt can be made of many blocks or be sewn as one complete quilt top.  Often includes embroidered motifs.

Dining Room Table:  A piece of quilting studio equipment, but it can also be used to serve a meal.

Fabraholic:  A deceptive word, as no one can have too much fabric in their collection (see “stash”).

Feed Sack Fabric:  Fabric originally used to make a sack for holding animal feed or products such as flour or sugar.  Often repurposed to make quilts, clothing or household items.

Hand Quilting:  A running stitch made by hand with a needle, going through all three layers of a quilt to hold them together.

Knife Edge Finish:  Sewing the edges of the quilt top and backing together so the raw edges are turned to the inside (no binding is used).

Layout, Setting or Pattern:  The arrangement in which blocks are sewn together to make a quilt.

On Point:  A square block set on a 45 degree angle, so it forms a diamond shape.

Piecing:  Sewing shapes of fabric together to form a block or a portion of a block.  This can be done by hand or machine stitching.

Quilt:  Usually two layers of fabric with batting sandwiched in between them, with the whole held together by stitching or yarn ties.  Some quilts have no batting or the backing is not attached to the top except at the edges.

Quilt Top:  The top layer of a quilt sandwich, generally with a pieced and/ or appliqued design.

Quilting:  The process of sewing the layers of a quilt together, whether by hand or machine.

Sashing:  Strips of fabric sewn between the blocks when joining them into a completed quilt top.

Scrap Quilt:  A quilt made with leftover fabrics, including scraps from sewing projects or salvaged fabric from discarded clothing or household items.

Stash:  A collection of quilt fabrics, saved for future projects.  (The person who dies with the largest stash wins...)

Tying:  Fastening the layers of a quilt together with knotted pieces of yarn, instead of stitching.

UFO:  Unfinished object.  Every quilter has at least one of these.

WOMBAT:  An unsuccessful quilt – a Waste Of Money, Batting And Time.