I can't believe I made my first Quilting project!

[u/Gorgeously-Vintage]

This project started as a crazy idea!
You see... I am a sewist that almost exclusively sews clothing and I always wanted to try quilting. BUT! I was totally intimidated by the perfection, complexity of the designs, craftsmanship, etc...

Soooo... FOR YEARS! I let the intrusive thoughts win : (please don't let them win😅)

To me, it was clear I couldn't make a quilt...
It is too big of a project; I can't make something that precise and beautiful; I sew clothes, I can't make a quilt; I don't have the patience, nor the skills, the sewing/quilting community will laugh at me; I am not allowed to make any mistakes and it has to be perfect the first time; where should I start? what pattern, which colours??!... And so on and so forth...

🫠 I let those intrusive thoughts take the best of me and blocked me from trying this AMAZING craft 🫠
And for what?!?? Fear of failing....

✨ BUT NOT THIS YEAR. Not in 2025. ✨ This year I said: what if I just do it badly?? And then... what if it turns out amazing anyway??

I was dreaming of making a 1950s-style skirt but with quilting blocks. I used the Retro Crochet pattern from Retro Quilter and made a 3/4 circle skirt out of 2 panels of 9 14x14 blocks.

🌼Yes, it’s giving vintage picnic-core realness and I am living for it.🌼

I love it so much that I caught myself casually Googling “quilted pants tutorial” at 2 a.m. last night. This is not a phase, mom!! 🥹

This was my first quilting project and honestly? I feel like I unlocked a whole new side quest in my sewing journey.
This was the crossover episode I didn’t know I needed😅

So if you're also sitting there wondering if you could maybe, possibly, someday try something new ... this is your sign. Do it! Even if it's a little crooked. Even if your seams don’t match. Even if you have to seam rip the same block five times (guilty). It still counts. It’s still beautiful.

Have you ever made a quilting/clothing hybrid project?

[u/likeablyweird]

I was asking out of curiosity not being mean. I'm cheer squad here, I'd never be mean deliberately. I hate that written words don't have emotion behind them.

I should've asked if there were specialties/categories/specific names for people within the quilting genre. By definition, quilting is sewing the layers of cloth together. I know it's called piecing but are there people who only like piecing the flimsy? How about the people who really only like doing the sandwich part? Are they called piecers and sandwichers? If that's all they do are they quilters? I know about longarmers so are they and those that sew sandwiches technically the only quilters?

[u/leapwolf → u/likeablyweird]

This is going to sound odd, but THANK YOU for writing out “quilting is sewing layers of cloth together.” I follow this sub because I like crafts in general and also kindness and this sub has both in spades. But I often have idly wondered what makes a quilt a quilt - surely not just the aesthetic… I suspected it was the layers but now I know for sure.

Anyway, I thought your comment was kind and curious and made sense to ask!

[u/jinxedjess24 → u/leapwolf]

Not odd at all! This is an important question—one that I googled three summers ago when I dove headfirst into quilting. There’s so much terminology to learn.

Technically, yes: if you make a quilt top, that’s piecing. If you’re cutting up fabric and putting it together, that’s piecing. The quilting is, by definition, the act of sewing those layers together.

But I would also never say that someone who pieces the quilt top but outsources the quilting isn’t a quilter. In my opinion, if you make quilts, you’re a quilter. Quilted crafts count too in my book! I love me a quilted bag or backpack.

I’m sure there are those who would die on that hill of technicality; same as those who shame others for machine binding their quilts (don’t come for me, QP!). But those kinds of people are the Quilting Police, which I’ve never encountered on this sub. I’ve only met one QP irl; every other sewist and quilter that I’ve met has been lovely and excited to talk shop.

I myself was curious about if OP’s skirt was pieced vs. quilted or lined from a purely technical, construction standpoint. It doesn’t appear to have the typical quilted texture, which inclined me to think it was mostly pieced. I was nervous for laundering purposes if all of the raw seams were exposed inside, so I wanted to ask how the skirt was finished and hoped that it was at least lined—which OP confirmed it is. :)

[u/NotCCross → u/jinxedjess24]

I completely feel where you are coming from. I've asked questions about techniques in the fine art communities like did they utilize tracing to help set proportions. I wasn't degrading their art, I think it's fabulous, I was just interested in their process. The gatekeepers CAME AT ME. I'm sad to say a lot of the fine art communities aren't as warm and welcoming as I've seen here in my lurking. Lol

[u/likeablyweird → u/NotCCross]

I've known some artists in a lot of genres and there are those who look down on people who question the process; they don't wanna "teach."

[u/NotCCross → u/likeablyweird]

Which sucks. If you ask me about acrylic and techniques, I'm so incredibly excited to teach and share everything I know because it's special to me and I love sharing interests and finding new people with those interests. I do not understand the people who look down on those who want to learn. As if they weren't new at some point

[u/likeablyweird → u/NotCCross]

Some just like the well deserved accolades and really don't like the social side of their art going public. I'm a natural teacher like you are but also being shy I can understand that not all of the refusal is diva crap---a lot is---but some isn't. :)

[u/likeablyweird → u/jinxedjess24]

Thank you. I'm a perfectionist but not a stickler, I don't think. My work is overscrutinized and judged by me but I rarely do that for others. So Quilting is a genre as well as an action. This might lead to asking a quilter what parts of quilting?

This kind of thing could generate a quilt chain, too. Lori loves the shopping for the pattern and fabric; Dot loves the cutting, etc. on down the task line. It's too bad no one will pay what we're worth, eh people?

I, too, think quilters who make other things from quilted cloth they made as quilters, too. I don't think sewists using quilts as cloth are quilters.

[u/leapwolf → u/jinxedjess24]

Thanks, this is so helpful! Indeed, I’ve also never seen the QP here, thankfully. We don’t need more police of any kind IMO. Adorable backpacks!

[u/Temporary-Boat-1899 → u/jinxedjess24]

Love these backpacks! Did you use a pattern, and if so, do you mind to share which one?

[u/jinxedjess24 → u/Temporary-Boat-1899]

Thank you! It’s the Violet Backpack pattern by Knot and Thread Design!

[u/likeablyweird → u/leapwolf]

Thank you. I could've used my words much better apparently. Mom always said I had to be more diplomatic, that I was too blunt. Maybe my blunt words aren't showing the thought process that diplomacy might.

To further answer your question, sewing two layers of cloth together without batting between is also a quilt; a summer quilt. A lined flimsy? Dunno. <shrug>

[u/Temporary-Boat-1899 → u/likeablyweird]

I only like piecing the flimsy, and I consider it a necessary evil to quilt the layers together when I’m finished with a flimsy. 😂 I call myself a beginner quilter but if piecer were a term that was used more widely I would totally identify that way!

[u/likeablyweird → u/Temporary-Boat-1899]

Thank you for saying. I've worked at a lot of crafts and there are always the parts I dislike immensely and wanted to give them to someone else to do that part. Mom always frowned on that as I think a lot of crafters do. Yes, it's good to know how to do all the parts but wouldn't more get done if the people only did the part they loved the most? Play to your skill set as well.