Pat Sloan’s Teach Me To Make My First Quilt: A How-to Book for All You Need To Know – Pat Sloan – That Patchwork Place – Published 15 August 2017

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Synopsis

Expert teacher and quilt designer Pat Sloan guides you through each and every step as you make your first quilt. Pat’s easy-to-follow instructions and more than 140 clear how-to photos make it fun to start, stitch, and finish nine classic blocks and nine simple quilt projects–even if you’re an absolute beginner. Learn the basics, from selecting notions and cutting fabric to machine sewing to quilting and binding, all from a skilled instructor with a warm, patient teaching style.

My thoughts

I have always wanted to create a quilt, but I’ve never been brave enough. No one in my family is a quilter. There is something so beautiful, colourful, intricate, and homely about patchwork quilts that have captured my attention and I have always desired to take that first (scary) leap and start one. For these reasons, Pat Sloan’s Teach Me To Make My First Quilt intrigued me.

This is the ideal book for people, such as myself, who want to sew their own quilt but aren’t sure where to start. It covers everything from tools, fabric choice, and tips and hints that you might not have thought of before.

The book is divided into three main sections. The first is an information guide on everything you need to know about basic quilting. Included in this first section is a short introduction, information about updating your sewing machine for quilting, tools you’ll need, how to change a rotary-cutter blade, common quilting terms and how to read a pattern. There is also information about fabric, different types and how to best measure and cut your fabric, followed by general sewing techniques for quilting. A chapter on appliqué is followed by chapters on assembling and finishing your quilt.


The second main section is devoted to patterns and instruction for creating nine different quilt blocks. These instructions are step-by-step construction guides, with a list of materials needed, and cutting guide. There are also matching step-by-step colour photographs. Block patterns include Rail Fence, Quarter Log Cabin, Churn Dash, and Sawtooth Star.

The third and final section is a guide for nine quilt projects, which utilise each of the nine block patterns in a range of quilts. These patterns include table runners, small quilts, large quilts and table toppers. Again each project outlines materials, cutting instructions, block assembly instructions with clear guides on fabric alignment, assembly guide, and instructions for finishing the quilt. Each project guide also features multiple colour photographs and detailed figures.

I love that this book introduces all the key concepts a beginning quilter will need to know and yet does not make this abundance of information overwhelming. The projects range from simple and small to larger and more complex. The blocks included will also enable quilters to extend beyond the projects included in the book to any quilt they should like to create. This book is simply a springboard and yet also a reference guide to which quilters will want to continually refer back.

The book is set out in a bright and clear way, which, along with the coloured figures and photographs, makes it easy to read. All measurements are in inches and yards.

This book has inspired me and filled me with confidence in a way no other beginners quilting or sewing book ever has. I am now eager to start my first quilting project – and who knows, I might even be able to finish it.

The publishers provided an advanced readers copy of this book for reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own.

More information

Category: Non-fiction

Genre:  Craft and Hobbies

Themes: Quilts, quilting, craft, hobbies, guidebook

Published:  15 August 2017 by That Patchwork Place.

Format: Paperback, ebook. 96 pages.

ISBN: 9781604688276, 1604688270

Find it on Goodreads