Introduction | Books | Magazines | Professional Resources | Related Articles | Sample Business Plans | Start-up Issues
Patchwork is a form of needlework or craft that involves using small pieces of fabric and stitching them together into a larger design, which is then usually quilted, or else tied together with pieces of yarn at regular intervals, a practice known as tying. Patchwork is traditionally "pieced" by hand, but modern quiltmakers often use a sewing machine instead.
Patchwork enjoyed a widespread revival during the Great Depression because it was a way to recycle worn clothing into warm quilts. Even very small and worn pieces of material are suitable for use in patchwork, although crafters today more often use specially bought patchwork material as the basis for their designs, especially 100% cotton.
Patchwork is most often used to make quilts, but it can also be used to make bags, wall-hangings, warm jackets, skirts and other items of clothing. Some textile artists work with patchwork, often combining it with embroidery and other forms of stitchery.
Patchwork and quilting are both enjoying a huge resurgence in popularity around the world, particularly in the United States and Japan. A survey in America identified Quilting as a multi-million dollar industry. International quilting exhibitions attract thousands of visitors from around the globe, while countless smaller exhibitions are held every weekend in local regions. Active cyber-quilting communities abound on the web, books and magazines on the subject are published in the hundreds every year, and there are many active local quilting guilds and shops in different countries. 'Quilt Art' is established as a legitimate artistic medium, with quilted works of art selling for thousands of dollars to corporate buyers and galleries. Quilt historians and Quilt appraisers are re-evaluating the heritage of traditional quilting and antique quilts, while superb examples of antique quilts are purchased for large sums by collectors and museums.
Types of patchwork
- Stained glass window patchwork
- Cathedral window patchwork
- Somerset patchwork
- Trapunto (Stuffed or Puff patchwork)
- Crazy quilting
Some of the Types of patchwork block:
| Aunt Sukey's Choice Baby Blocks Barbara Frietchie's Star Bear's Paw Blazing Sun Bow Tie Bridal Wreath Brown Goose Cactus Flower California Clay's Choice Crosses and Losses Dolley Madison Star |
Double Irish Chain Double X Dresden plate Drunkard's path Eccentric Star Fish Block Flying Geese Grandmother's Fan Hen and Chickens Hexagon Hole in the Barn Door Hovering Hawks Jack-in-the-box |
Lincoln's Platform Jacob's Ladder Log Cabin Morning Star Next Door Neighbour Nine-patch Ocean Waves Ohio Star Old Maid's Puzzle Old Tippecanoe Pineapple Prairie Queen Road to California |
Rocky Road to Kansas Schoolhouse Shoo fly Spider Web Star of Bethlehem Steps to the Altar Tree of Life Tulip Turkey Tracks Wandering Foot Winding Ways |
Business
Patchwork as a business is classified as an industry based on its purpose. It can be
in the manufacturing industry as a textile product (NAICS Code
314999) if what is produced is a new product,
such as an article of clothing. It can be in the arts industry if the patchwork is considered
to be a work of art (NAICS Code 711510),
rather than a product.
There are a variety of ways people make money from patchwork. Some sell their quilts locally, at trade shows or via the internet. Others sell original patterns or kits they have designed themselves. And, still others teach quilting. The best way to learn more about the viabiiity of any of these business models is to participate in associations and workshops, subscribe to magazines that are related to your interests, and read books that give more in-depth information about the business.
Introduction | Books | Magazines | Professional Resources | Related Articles | Sample Business Plans | Start-up Issues
300 Paper-pieced Quilt Blocks
These 3" and 4" block patterns feature traditional blocks, seasonal and holiday themes,
alphabets, numbers, and much more. You can print patterns on the spot using a home
computer - even resize or make multiple patterns with the click of a mouse.
The Amish Quilt
Draws together the body of available information about the Amish and their textile
traditions.
The Basic Guide to Pricing Your Craftwork
Basic formulas for pricing craftwork, retail or wholesale.
The Basic Guide to Selling Arts & Crafts
Step-by-step help on over 150 topics for marketing your home made crafts.
The Basic Guide to Selling Crafts on the Internet
Unravels the mysteries of selling crafts online with clear, step-by-step advice.
Business and Legal Forms for Crafts
A complete set of business and legal forms designed to meet the active craftperson's every need.
The Business of Sewing, Volume 1
Sample price lists; lists of organizations and lending institutions; payment methods
you can offer your customers; how to get a merchant account for credit card sales;
how to collect money on past due accounts; buying in bulk with a list of
suppliers and a sample letter to contact them; business and financial plans;
studio design, networking; time management;
tackling your fears; turning sewing into a business and making the transition; how
to avoid getting frustrated; industry statistics.
The Business of Sewing, Volume 2
How to make a "Consumer Price List", and how to structure a "Working Price List"
and the use of both; what "Pricing" method is best for you and how to handle price
resistance; how to conduct production analysis with a time and motion
study; how to make a project inventory list; how to market your business;
subcontractors or fabricators and how to hire them; E-commerce and
on-line merchant accounts, web design, shopping carts and E-newsletters;
how to write books and articles, teach seminars and workshops, and produce sewing
audios and videos.
Color Play: Easy Steps to Imaginative Color in Quilts
A gallery of over seventy lusciously colored quilts illustrates the author's
techniques for choosing colors. Sample fabric arrangements make color concepts
easy to understand; color scales show the variations of pure hues, tints, shades,
and tones and how they affect the mood of a quilt.
Celtic Quilts: A New Look for Ancient Designs
These all-new, timesaving techniques show you how to create exquisite, interlacing
Celtic patterns more simply and quickly than ever before! Just "baste" designs with
fusible web, machine appliqué with "invisible" stitches, and add dramatic color and
texture with decorative threads. A mix of ancient and modern Celtic patterns is provided.
Crafting as a Business
How to develop a thriving retail business.
Crafting for Dollars
Covers every aspect of starting and managing your own craft-based business.
Crafts and Crafts Shows
Good business practice in dealing with customers, pricing, and presentation in the show booth.
The Crafts Business Answer Book & Resource Guide
Answers to questions about starting, marketing, and managing a homebased business
efficiently, legally, and profitably.
Designing Tessellations: The Secrets of Interlocking Patterns
Tessellations are designs made up of the repeated use of seemingly complex but
deceptively simple shapes that interlock perfectly to flow across a quilt. Inspired
by artist M. C. Escher, Jinny Beyer introduces quilters to the fascinating world
of symmetry and then clearly shows how to experiment with shapes and images to
create sensational, tessellating designs.
Flawless Hand Quilting
More than 270 clear color photos in this reference will guide you through all the
basics and then beyond into a world of beautiful hand-quilting techniques.
Glorious Patchwork
Over 25 different patchwork designs that are pictured and displayed in gorgeous
settings. There are no shortage of color photographs and most of the designs are
pictured close up and then pictured again being used in the home decor.
Guide to Machine Quilting
Covers every aspect of quilting with a sewing machine, from choosing equipment and
supplies to marking and quilting the design and finishing the quilt. Of special note
are the sections on free-motion quilting and dealing with the bulk of a quilt in the
machine. The text is rounded out by three machine-quilting projects designed to
illustrate techniques taught in the book.
Handmade for Profit
Hundreds of secrets to success in selling arts & crafts.
A Joy Forever: Marie Webster's Quilt Patterns
This book spotlights the life and quilt patterns of Marie Webster (1859-1956),
world famous leader of the quilt revival of the early 20th century. Containing
12 full size patterns and complete directions for her charming appliqu quilts.
Little Quilts: All Through the House
Choose from 18 quick-to-assemble miniature quilt projects and companion pillows.
Includes shortcut techniques for quick piecing and full-size templates. Find hints
for using "magic" fabrics to create quilts with an antique look.
Make It Profitable!
The best ideas and information from 80 professionals in various fields of the craft industry.
Perfect Piecing
More than 270 color, step-by-step photos and crystal-clear directions from the experts
make each and every sewing session fun and successful no matter what your skill level is.
Piecing: Expanding the Basics
Details on all the unique seams.
Quilters Complete Guide
First published in 1993, it has gone into reprint over 16 times. Fons and Porter are
the most recognizable experts in the quilting industry. They are the authoritative
guides through all the latest trends and technological advances in the quilting world.
The Quilters Ultimate Visual Guide : From A to Z
Hundreds of tips and techniques for successful quiltmaking.
Quilting with Japanese Fabrics
Japanese-inspired textiles and fabrics are now more popular than ever, but their
large-scale motifs can be challenging to use in quilts. Award-winning quiltmaker
Kitty Pippen shares her expertise and enthusiasm for Japanese textiles with eight
exquisite quilt designs and 40 glorious photos of quilts that showcase the beauty
of these fine fabrics.
Quilts for Baby: Easy as ABC
Learn to make 11 super-easy quilts, using fun, colorful fabrics and novelty prints.
Construct many old-time favorite blocks, including an easy adaptation of Attic Windows.
Yardage and cutting charts, plus complete instructions, make assembly a breeze.
Quilts in America
Surveys nearly 300 years of quilt history, techniques, patterns, and styles. Originally
stimulated by the desire for warmth and the need to economize, quilt-making evolved
from an extremely practical enterprise into an elaborate and highly personal art form.
Sensational Sets and Borders
Discover lots of exciting new ways to arrange your stash of blocks in fresh,
creative settings, and then surround them with a dynamic pieced or plain border.
More than 200 quilter's-eye-view photos and clear step-by-step directions will guide
you each step of the way.
That Perfect Stitch
Explains the complexities behind proper stitching and teaches quilters of all levels
how they can improve their skills. Quilters will learn to achieve more stitches per
inch and create even quilting lines, resulting in a finer quality quilt that both
showcases the quilter's creative and technical skills and withstands the test of time.
Watercolor Quilts
Unlike traditional quilts in which the color scheme is the key element, watercolor
quilts, often mood pieces intended to be hung on a wall, are constructed with more
attention to the fabric design and to color values than to the actual hues used.
Manipulating small squares of fabric into a flowing design takes not only patience,
but good design sense and thorough planning. In this remarkable, unusual book,
Magaret and Slusser explain how it's done.
Your Crafts Business: A Legal Guide
Explains legal principles that protect a crafts business and help it grow. It also
provides practical advice on how to deal with day-to-day problems -- such as dealing
with delinquent payments. The book provides over a dozen tear-out contracts and other
legal forms, plus step-by-step instructions to fill them out.
Introduction | Books | Magazines | Professional Resources | Related Articles | Sample Business Plans | Start-up Issues
American Patchwork and Quilting
This project-driven publication comes with complete step-by-step instructions and full-size patterns.
McCall's Quilting
Journal devoted to providing new patterns, lessons and ideas in the art of quilting.
Quick Quilts
Features quilt patterns and photographs of quilts, as well as information on quilting.
Quilt
Written for both the beginning and accomplished quilter. Features traditional quilts,
quilting personalities and activities. How-to-make-it articles teaching quilting
techniques and full size patterns with instructions are included in each issue.
Quilter Magazine
A teaching magazine that offers inspiration to all quilters as well as gorgeous photographs.
Quilter's Newsletter Magazine
Articles on design, technique, history, new and old quilt patterns, trends, museum quilts,
and current events in quilting. Exhibitions, quilt shows, quiltmaking lessons, and
quilt competitions.
Quilting Arts Magazine
The latest techniques in art and embellished quilting, wearable arts, mixed media, surface
design, and other textile arts. Features guest artists and teachers, and addresses a wide
range of skills including surface embroidery, thread painting, stamping, and fabric painting.
Quiltmaker
Tips, techniques & patterns for today's quilters. Features include projects,
lessons, and instructions for all interest levels and abilities.
