how does she do it?

Making a quilt is a lot like making a BLT sandwich. First you pick a patchwork pattern and fabric for the quilt top.   A quilt top can be made up of one or more different block patterns.

This quilt top consists of two block patterns and uses only eight different fabrics to make up the entire quilt top.   Some quilts can use four or more block patterns and have dozens or tens of dozens of different fabrics while some have only two or three. There are simple quilts and elaborate quilts. Everything from square patch quilts to watercolor quilts, crazy quilts, Hawaiian appliqué quilts, and free-form quilts.

Once the quilt top is pieced (sewn) together, it is time to make the quilt sandwich.  

Next, we add the middle of the sandwich, the batting. In this example, I used 100% cotton but you can use synthetic or synthetic/cotton blend battings. The choice depends on the how you will use the quilt and your preference.   The batting is placed over the backing and it too is taped to the floor or the backing to keep it in place.  

I place the quilt top right side up on top of the other two layers.   It is smoothed out to remove any wrinkles, but it isn't taped.   Starting at the center of the quilt and working toward the edges, I pinned it with safety pins every 2" covering the entire face of the quilt.

Next I remove the tape and lift the quilt sandwich from the floor. You can either machine or hand quilt. I machine quilted this one.

The last step is to finish the edges.   I didn't want a border or frame around this quilt, so instead, I turned under the edges and hand stitched them to the backing.

Finally it is signed, dated, and ready to be used for the next hundred years or so.

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