Glossary

Appliqué- n - a cutout decoration fastened to a larger piece of material.

 

Appliqué stitch- n - a hand stitch also called blind stitch or slip stitch used to hand finish the quilt binding.

 

Backing- n - fabric used for the back of a quilt (often muslin).

 

Basting (safety pin)- n - the process of joining the layers of a quilt together with safety pins

 

Batting- n - sheets of cotton, wool, or synthetic material used mostly for stuffing quilts.

 

Binding- n - the straight grain or bias strips of fabric used to cover the raw edges and batting of a quilt.  French binding is double-folded.

 

Border- n - an outer part or edge of a quilt.

 

Bulk- n - the main or greater part of the quilt.

 

 

 

 

 

Free-motion quilting- n - the process of quilting intricate designs by sewing machine.

 

Fusible webbing- n - a man-made material coated with a heat-activated adhesive that fuses fabric pieces together when pressed with a warm iron.

 

Layering- v - the process of laying out and aligning the backing, batting, and top of a quilt before basting them  together in preparing for quilting.

 

Chain piecing- n - a technique for joining several fabric pairs in a chain by feeding them through the machine one after the other without lifting the presser foot or cutting threads between pairs.

Muslin- n - a plain woven cotton fabric of medium weight.

 

Patchwork- n - pieces of cloth of various colors and shapes sewn together usually in a pattern.

 

Piecing- v - a process of sewing together pieces of fabric by hand or machine to make patch work.

 

Post or “corner post”- n - the fabric corners of a sash framed quilt block.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matching seams- n - the place at which seam lines meet, most often at corners, represented by dots on pattern pieces.

Rotary cutter and mat- n - the rotary cutter is a fabric cutting tool with a circular blade that cuts through several layers of fabric at once.  It is best used with a thick, clear plastic ruler as a cutting guide.  A cutting mat is essential to protect the work surface and preserve the blades sharpness.

 

Sashing- n - the fabric that separates the blocks framing them and making the quilt larger.

 

Seam allowance- n - the margin of fabric between the seam and the raw edge.

 

Selvedge- n - edge of cloth so woven that it will not ravel.

 

Template- n - a firm pattern usually made from vinyl or post board used as a guide for marking or transferring patch work or appliqué shapes onto fabric. 

 

Rhombus- n - a parallelogram with four equal sides.

Walking foot (or even-feed foot)- a sewing machine presser foot attachment for machine quilting that moves the top fabric through the machine at the same rate that the feed dogs move the bottom fabric. 

 

Zigzag stitch- n - a side-to-side a machine stitch that is used to cover the raw edges of appliqués and join them to a backboard fabric.

Variegated- adj - having patches, stripes, or marks of different colors.