Your local quilt shop is the very best source for your quilting needs — patterns, books, fabric, quilting tools, and other notions, as well as wonderful quiltmaking classes. If you don’t have easy access to a shop where you live, there are many options for online purchases from brick-and-mortar as well as online-only quilt shops, putting the quilt resources of the country and even the world at your fingertips.
Craftsy. To locate a wide selection of PDF patterns for quilts and quilted projects, visit www.craftsy.com. Select, purchase, download, and print your favorites. Some patterns are even free. You can also register for and take online quiltmaking classes at this website, and post and share your finished projects there. You can take Craftsy classes that you’ve purchased at your leisure and repeat as often as necessary.
Free patterns. There are many websites that offer free patterns. To begin your search, enter “free quilt patterns” in your favorite search engine and follow the links that come up.
Techniques and problem solving. For additional quilting and sewing techniques and to find answers to common quilting and sewing questions, check out The Quilting Answer Book and The Sewing Answer Book, both by Barbara Weiland Talbert. Visit the author’s webpage at www.joyofsewing.com or keep up with her doings on her blog at www.joyofsewingandquilting.blogspot.com. Sign up to receive new posts on your computer.
For quilt inspiration and tutorials, join Pinterest (www.pinterest.com), the popular social-media website for web-image filing and sharing. Check out the crafts and DIY projects that abound there and save them to “virtual pinboards” that you create for personal use. It’s a great site for inspiration, block and quilt designs, and patterns.
If you want to design your own quilts, you can’t go wrong with Electric Quilt, software designed to help you create your own quilt designs as well as yardage charts, block-cutting directions, and cutting templates if required. A vast library of block designs are included in the program, or use the drawing tools to create your own designs. You can find Electric Quilt at many independent quilt shops, along with hands-on classes taught by experts. Or, you can order it from www.electricquilt.com.