First little glimpse at progress on the commissioned coin quilt. Just the binding left to go!
I'm really no expert, but I've been asked by some people about the various steps of making a quilt, and as I'm completely self taught (I've learned everything from blogs and books!) I thought I'd put all of my favorite tutorials/posts in one place. I've read a lot of blogs about the process of making quilts and to me, with these specific posts, anyone can make a quilt. I'm proof of it because this is how I learned!
In terms of making the quilt top, to each their own! That's where it's all about taste and design. The one thing I am not is a perfectionist, so I'm not all about perfect piecing. I've gotten better with practice and this is a great place to read about the details, from cutting to pressing...
http://quilting.about.com/od/piecingtechniques/Piecing_Sewing_Methods_for_Quilters.htm
Sizes of different quilts and different adjustments can be found here:
http://www.amishcountrylanes.com/Pages/QuiltSize.shtml
For basting layers of the quilt:
http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2007/09/one-way-to-baste-quilt.html
For quilting there is lots to be read but I'm personally a free motion quilter. I love this discussion on flickr. It's filled with lots of specific tips from different quilters.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/quilts/discuss/72157604324619530/
And this post with a video is amazingly helpful!
http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2008/03/free-motion-quilting.html
Once you've quilted all that's left is the binding and this is a great tutorial:
http://heatherbailey.typepad.com/photos/continuous_quiltbinding/index.html
And then your quilt is all done!! I've made many quilts simply by following all of these directions. I've never had another quilter see how I do any of my work so there's a good chance they would look on in horror at my methods, but in the end, I always end up with a pretty quilt, so I don't worry myself too much with that! I have so much fun making my quilts and that's what matters!