9 Tips for Designing your Own Piecework Quilt

If you’ve ever thought about designing your own piecework quilt, here are some of the things I think about when I’m turning a drawing into a design that can actually be pieced together.

1. Think about your composition

This can make or break a design. I like to plan out my composition in some tiny rough sketches first, before I start drawing my actual quilt design. It’s much easier to move things around, try different arrangements and work out what feels right at this stage.

2. Think in blocks of colour

Because you’ll be piecing together pieces of fabric that are each one colour (unless, of course, you’re using patterned fabric), I always think in terms of blocks of colour—almost as if I were designing a stained-glass window.

This means you can’t really have a gradual colour change within one piece. At some point, you need to decide exactly where one colour ends and another begins.

For example, on a gum nut or flower pod, one side will often be darker than the other. In nature, that might be a soft gradation, but in my quilt design I need to decide where I’m going to switch from the lighter colour to the darker colour. Because of the nature of piecework, that becomes a clear line.

That’s one of the little design decisions you need to make along the way.

3. Think about complexity

A eucalyptus blossom has hundreds of tiny filaments forming the flower, so I’m always simplifying what I see in nature to make it manageable to piece. I’m definitely not going to piece 100 filaments per blossom!

And I actually make a different decision again if I’m designing a pattern for you to make. In that case, I reduce the complexity even further because I want my patterns to be achievable for as many of you as possible.

4. Remove corners

My rule is to never piece around a corner.

Anywhere in my design where I have a corner, I’ll add what I call a construction seam. I’ll piece straight lines and I’ll piece curved lines to a point, but I won’t try to piece around the corner, because I find that leaves too much margin for things to sit not quite flat.

So, where two lines meet at a point, I’ll continue one of those lines until it meets another line somewhere in the design. That creates a seam that isn’t actually part of the image. Once the quilt is finished, it will simply blend into the background - but it makes the piecing much more manageable.

5. Simplify tricky curves

In the same way, I’ll simplify any particularly tricky curves.

Sometimes a design has a substantial curve that goes around more than half a circle, or even close to a full circle. Rather than trying to piece around the whole thing, I’ll run a construction seam through the centre.

That way I can stitch one half of the curve, stitch the other half, and then join the two together. Again, it helps me avoid piecing that’s unnecessarily complex or more likely to sit a little wonky once it’s finished.

Examples might be the bud of a eucalyptus flower - or even something as small as a child’s finger.

6. Work out which lines really matter

I think carefully about which elements and lines are critical to my design and which ones can be left out.

For example, when I’m designing a quilt that incorporates a face, getting the lines of the eyes, nose, mouth and profile just right can make or break the design. But you also don’t want to add more than you need, because every extra line makes the piecework more complex.

It’s about retaining enough information to make it clear what you’re trying to show, while keeping the piecework manageable.

7. Think about contrast

Think about contrast of colour, but also contrast in tonal values.

This matters when you’re deciding whether you want something to pop out from the design or blend into it. For example, I’ve just made a quilt with white eucalyptus blossoms. To make those blossoms stand out, I can place some dark green leaves behind them - or I can allow parts of them to blend into the background.

A bit of both is often what creates an interesting design.

In the same way, I like to vary colours across the design so that the overall image is still striking from a distance.

8. Remember that every line means more piecing!

Designing is easy when you’re scribbling away with pencil or pen on paper - but every element you add to your drawing eventually becomes more piecework. That means more pieces to cut out and more seams to stitch together.

I say yay, because I love piecing! But it’s definitely something to keep in mind as you’re designing your quilt.

9. But don’t leave out all the little details

This is really the flipside of the previous point.

Adding a few extra details here and there is often what makes a design. They can take something from that’s nice to oh, that’s so special!

So there’s a balancing act. Think about where those extra details will actually add something worthwhile - and where it’s worth putting in the extra cutting and stitching to make a real difference to the finished piece.