Kiku Corner’s Essential Quilting Supplies

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I’m only working on my second quilt, but I have already discovered which quilting supplies I find most helpful.

Kiku Corner’s Essential Quilting Supplies

Rotary Cutter

Tomiko and I just got our first rotary cutter, and I don’t know what took us so long! The cutters are a bit pricy, but they cut so cleanly and accurately I can’t imagine not using mine again. The Keepsake Quilting website says that rotary cutters became popular among quilters in 1979, so it’s no surprise I haven’t heard of them before: my Oma (who was a Master Tailor) and my mom learned sewing before 1979, and quilting is not common in Germany.

Cutting Mat

It is imperative to use your rotary cutter on a self-healing cutting mat. These mats are often printed with measurements and angles and are a great surface to use when cutting. The cutting mats protect your table or floor from cuts or scratches, but they heal themselves.

Acrylic Templates

You can trace these templates and cut around them without damaging the template itself. I have two, a six-inch square and a four-inch square. You can then cut fabric squares into triangles, so these are my two favourite sizes.

Nice Fabric

I like to use small colourful prints, but that’s just my preference. Small prints allow you to still see the print even when you cut the fabric into small pieces. Quilter’s weight cotton is a high quality 100% cotton that has only minimal shrinkage, although you could use other fabrics too.

Fabric Scissors

Although I use my new rotary cutter for cutting small, accurate pieces of fabric, fabric scissors are great for cutting large amounts, like backing and binding. Never use them to cut paper (something that Tomiko and I learned when we were very little), as this dulls the sharp blades.

Small Embroidery Scissors

These are great for keeping on hand to snip threads, and should be nice and sharp. I use a little stork-motif pair of embroidery scissors.

Seam Ripper

A little seam ripper is a great tool to undo any stitches. These can be super cheap and plain; they just need to be super sharp.

Quilting Hoop

The last of my essential quilting supplies is the quilting hoop. I quilted my queen-sized quilt by hand, and I like to sit with the quilt comfortably on my couch and either have a movie or audiobook running in the background. Since I am not in any rush, and I don’t want to sit in the basement where we keep our sewing machine, I just quilt by hand. A quilting hoop is like a big embroidery hoop that keeps the quilt sandwich together and allows you to quilt without sewing fabric wrinkles together accidentally.

And here’s a sneak peek of the baby quilt I’m making!