How to Gather Fabric to Create Texture

Learn how to gather fabric by hand to create a fun textured surface for your next quilt- Heather Thomas shows you how.

Supplies and Preparation

For this technique all you need is your desired fabric, embroidery floss and non-woven, fusible interfacing. Heather explains that she likes to use embroidery floss in a contrasting color to her fabric for this technique as you will see the stitching on the finished block. She then explains how large of fabric rectangles need to be cut depending on the size of finished block you are wanting to create. Once your fabric has been cut the stitching lines can be marked, which Heather shows how to do by folding the fabric rather than using any type of marking pen that may later need to be removed.

Stitching and Finishing

Heather shows how to gather fabric by stitching lines of running stitches down the length of the fabric. She explains how she likes to keep all of the knots along one edge of the fabric, as it makes it easier to gather in the end. Once all of the lines of stitching have been completed Heather shows how to fuse one edge of the fabric to the interfacing. Next she shows how to gather the fabric by pulling on the ends of the embroidery floss. Once the block has been initially gathered the opposite edge can be fused in place and the gathers adjusted.

Heather shows how you can create textured fabric with different looks by adjust the gathers on the block to make designs. Once you adjust the gathers to your liking the block can then be complete fused to the interfacing to hold it in place. Heather then shows how easy it is to assemble the gathered blocks into a fun art quilt. She also explains an easy way to quilt the piece and then add embellishments to finish.