Are you eager to transform beautiful fabrics into cosy quilts? Danél is excited to invite you to her series of lessons for first time quilters.
Course Overview
Beginning in the second week of October 2025, this series of 7 lessons will take you step-by-step through the fundamentals of quilting. As you progress, you will create a beautiful square lap quilt while learning every essential technique involved in the process.
What You Will Learn
Piecing: Discover how to cut and join fabric accurately, forming the basic building blocks of your quilt.
Paper Foundation Piecing: Learn to use a paper pattern to achieve complex and precise quilt designs.
Simple Appliqué: Explore the technique of layering fabric shapes onto your quilt top to add decorative details.
Quilt Construction, Sashing and Borders: Understand how to assemble your blocks, frame them with sashing, and finish with borders for a polished appearance.
Quilting and Binding: Master the final steps by adding batting and backing, quilting all the layers together, and applying a neat binding to complete your project.
Class Schedule and Environment
Classes are offered on Tuesdays, Thursdays, or Saturdays, allowing you to select the time that best fits your schedule. You will find a welcoming and supportive atmosphere at 40 on Ilkey B&B where you can learn at your own pace and connect with other new quilters.
Your Finished Quilt
By the end of the series, you will have created a finished square throw quilt that you can be proud of.
Join Us
If you are ready to start your quilting adventure, register online.
The evolution of polyester batting reflects major advancements in textile technology, changes in consumer needs, and the growth of machine quilting. Here’s an overview of how polyester batting has developed from its early forms to the high-performance products quilters use today:
1. Origins in Synthetic Fiber Technology (1940s–1950s)
Invention of Polyester: Polyester was first developed in the 1940s by British chemists working for the Calico Printers Association. It became commercially available in the 1950s, marketed by DuPont as Dacron®.
Early Use in Textiles: Initially used for clothing and industrial textiles, polyester’s durability, moisture resistance, and non-organic nature soon made it a candidate for insulation materials — including quilt batting.
2. Early Polyester Batting (1960s–1970s)
Thick and Puffy: Early polyester battings were very lofty and often overly spongy. They were appreciated for being lightweight, mold-resistant, and cheap, but often lacked stability and drape.
Shift from Cotton: Cotton batting was difficult to wash and could shrink. Polyester became popular for its washability, non-shrinking quality, and easy handling for beginners.
3. Refinement and Blending (1980s–1990s)
New Manufacturing Techniques: Improvements in fiber processing allowed for finer, more uniform polyester fibers, producing battings that were smoother, flatter, and easier to quilt.
Needle-Punched Batting: This technique punched fibers together with barbed needles, creating a more stable and compact structure, ideal for machine quilting.
Bonded Batting: Heat- or resin-bonded battings held their shape better and resisted bearding (fibers pushing through the quilt top).
Blends Introduced: Polyester was blended with cotton or rayon to combine the warmth and softness of natural fibers with the stability and washability of polyester.
Tailored Properties: Today’s polyester battings are engineered for specific needs:
Low-loft for flat quilts and detailed quilting.
High-loft for comforters or trapunto techniques.
Thermal battings for insulation (e.g., heat-resistant projects).
Recycled polyester for eco-conscious quilters.
Machine Quilting Revolution: Modern battings are designed to perform well under the pressure of longarm machines — resisting shifting, bunching, or stretching.
Soft Feel: Manufacturers have improved the “hand” of polyester batting — making it feel softer and more natural, almost like cotton or wool.
Non-bearding Formulas: Innovations reduce the tendency of fibers to migrate through fabric layers.
5. Sustainability and Innovation (2010s–Today)
Eco-Friendly Polyester: Recycled plastic bottles are now being used to produce green batting options, appealing to environmentally conscious makers.
Custom Applications: Battings are now available for wearable quilts, art quilts, home décor, and even embroidery stabilization.
From Bulky to Brilliant
Polyester batting has evolved from a novelty synthetic alternative to a versatile, high-tech quilting essential. Whether you want extra loft, crisp stitch definition, or a thin layer for easy quilting, there’s a polyester batt to suit the purpose — a testament to decades of development and innovation.
The Tina Skukan Gallery cordially invites you to an exhibition of textiles, fabrics and contemporary art quilts, remarkably varied in their themes, designs and materialsby Antoinette Nel, Danél Muller, Elaine Louw Jenny Hearn Lein Smuts, Marlene Toerien and Tilly de Harde The fabric and textiles used in these works of art were created with a variety of textures, colours, patterns, prints, fabric with sheen and also woven fabrics. These textile artists push the boundaries of the traditional medium. Their work is dynamic, innovative, thought provoking, creative and compelling. The exhibition will be opened on Sunday 18 May 2025 at 11h30 – 14h00 by Tilly de Harde Award-winning and renowned Textile Artist The exhibition can be viewed until 12 June 202
‘Scatter cushions’, ElaineLouw‘Succulent Karoo Biome’, 140 x 72cm, Commercial and hand dyed fabrics and threads Machine and hand pieced, quilted and embroidered, Jenny Hearn‘Waar die hart lê’, 12 x 8cm, Digital print on cotton, Lein Smuts‘Daffodils’, 90 x 90cm, Pieced in cotton with machine appliqué, machine quilted
Danél Muller‘Autumn with Copper Leaves’, 34 X 14cm Fibre and Textile, Tilly de Harde
Quilting offers a wide range of benefits for children, fostering creativity, skill development, and personal growth. It encourages artistic expression, allowing children to experiment with colors, patterns, and textures, which helps develop their imagination and design skills.
The hands-on nature of quilting enhances fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination through activities like cutting, stitching, and piecing fabrics together. The process also teaches patience and perseverance, as children learn to focus on completing a project step by step.
Quilting involves decision-making and problem-solving, such as selecting fabrics and aligning seams, helping children develop critical thinking skills. It also introduces practical applications of math and geometry, as they measure, cut, and work with shapes and patterns.
Completing a quilt instills a sense of pride and boosts confidence, as children see the results of their effort in a tangible, beautiful creation. It also teaches sustainability and resourcefulness, as many quilting projects involve using fabric scraps or repurposing materials, reinforcing eco-conscious values.
The repetitive and methodical nature of quilting offers a calming, mindful experience, providing children with a relaxing break from fast-paced or screen-based activities. Additionally, quilting can be a social activity, fostering connections with family, peers, or community groups, and creating shared experiences and lasting memories.
Through quilting, children gain a mix of creative, practical, and life skills while building confidence and forming meaningful connections with the world around them.
The art of quilting remains highly relevant in 2025, seamlessly blending timeless traditions with modern advancements. It continues to serve as a vital medium for preserving cultural heritage, allowing quilters to honor historical narratives, document personal stories, and celebrate diverse traditions. Through quilting, these stories are kept alive and passed on to future generations.
Quilting has also evolved into a dynamic art form, with modern quilters pushing boundaries by experimenting with bold patterns, abstract designs, and unconventional materials. This innovation ensures its place in the contemporary art scene. At the same time, quilting aligns with the growing global focus on sustainability. By repurposing fabric scraps, recycling old textiles, and upcycling materials, quilters actively contribute to more eco-conscious lifestyles.
The social aspect of quilting remains strong, fostering connection and community. Quilt guilds, exhibitions, and online platforms bring people together, creating opportunities for collaboration, skill-sharing, and intergenerational bonding. For many, quilting also serves as a form of therapy, with its repetitive, hands-on process offering mental health benefits like mindfulness, stress relief, and creative expression.
Advances in technology have made quilting more accessible and innovative. Digital design tools, long-arm quilting machines, and online resources enable both beginners and experienced quilters to hone their craft and create unique works of art. Quilts continue to strike a balance between functionality and beauty, serving as cherished household items, decorative pieces, and heirlooms that hold personal and emotional value.
In addition to its cultural and artistic significance, quilting presents economic opportunities. Handmade quilts are highly valued, and many artisans turn their passion into thriving businesses by selling their creations or teaching their techniques. Quilting in 2025 remains a testament to the enduring power of craftsmanship, blending tradition with innovation to stay a vital part of art, culture, and community.
Choosing colours for any quilting project is a creative and enjoyable process that greatly impacts the overall aesthetic of a quilt. The selection of colours involves considering personal preferences, the intended design, and the mood or theme of the project. Here are some tips and strategies to help guide colour choices for hand piecing:
Understand Colour Theory
Familiarize yourself with the basics of the colour wheel, including primary, secondary, and tertiary colours, as well as complementary, analogous, and triadic colour schemes. You can also, with great succes use a monochrome scheme. This can be as easy as to read your colour wheel.
Use the principles of contrast and harmony to balance bold and subtle tones in your design.
Start with a Focal Fabric
Select a fabric with a pattern or colour scheme that inspires you and build your colour palette around it.
Pull colours from the focal fabric to coordinate your other fabric choices, ensuring cohesion across the quilt.
Consider the Mood or Theme
Choose colours that reflect the mood you want to evoke. For instance, soft pastels create a calm and soothing feel, while bright, vibrant colours convey energy and playfulness.
Seasonal or thematic quilts (e.g., autumn leaves, seaside scenes) often draw from specific colour palettes associated with the theme.
Cosider these two patterns for a scatter cushion.
Test Value and Contrast
Incorporate a mix of light, medium, and dark shades to create depth and visual interest.
Use value contrast to define patterns, ensuring individual pieces stand out rather than blending.
Viewing fabrics in black and white (by taking a photo, change the effect to grey scale or using a colour-reducing app) can help evaluate value differences.
Use a Design Wall or Mock-up
Arrange fabric swatches on a design wall or piece them together loosely to see how the colours interact.
Adjust the placement or swap fabrics until you’re satisfied with the overall balance.
Limit or Expand Your Palette
For simplicity, start off with a limited palette of 2-3 colours for a cohesive look.
If you are a little braver, you can embrace a scrappy style by including many different colours, united by a common feature like tone, value, or pattern. Group the fabric in tone value – light medium or dark, rather than colour.
Another trusted method is to choose a focus fabric and pick up the colour palette from the prints on the fabric with the rhyme: one darker, one lighter, one duller one brighter. This gives you a pallet of five colours. Your personal taste will depend on the fabric you want to emphasise. (Beyer, 2019) This method ensures a balanced palette with effective variety in tone values.
Experiment with Fabric Patterns
Combine solids and prints for variety. Solids can anchor the design, while prints add texture and interest.
Consider the scale of the fabric patterns to ensure they complement rather than overwhelm your design.
Use Pre-made Colour Tools
Colour cards, quilting colour wheels, and online palette generators can inspire your choices and provide combinations that work well together.
Explore fabric collections from designers, as they often include pre-coordinated fabrics that simplify the selection process.
Be Inspired by Nature or Art
Nature provides endless colour combinations that work beautifully together—think of the greens and blues of a forest or the warm hues of a sunset.
Artwork, photographs, or even home décor can spark ideas for unique colour palettes.
Trust Your Intuition
Ultimately, quilting is a personal expression of creativity. Choose colours that resonate with you, as they will make the process more enjoyable and the final piece more meaningful.
By thoughtfully selecting colours, quilters can bring their designs to life, creating visually stunning and emotionally resonant quilts. Experimentation and practice will help develop a personal style and a keen sense for combining colours effectively.
A memory quilt is a deeply personal and sentimental creation, holding immense emotional and symbolic value. It transforms cherished moments, milestones, and loved ones’ keepsakes into a tangible, lasting tribute. Its worth goes far beyond its physical components of fabric and thread, encompassing the stories, connections, and emotions stitched into every piece.
Emotional Value
Preservation of Memories: A memory quilt captures moments in time—baby clothes, wedding fabrics, concert T-shirts, or a loved one’s garments. It becomes a tangible way to revisit precious memories.
Healing and Comfort: Memory quilts can provide solace during times of loss or change. Wrapping oneself in the fabric of a loved one’s history is like a warm, emotional embrace.
Celebration of Milestones: From graduations to anniversaries, memory quilts honor life’s milestones in a unique and lasting way.
Symbolic Value
A Legacy of Love: Memory quilts can be passed down through generations, preserving family stories and traditions. Each square becomes part of a larger narrative, connecting the past to the future.
A Representation of Connection: Every fabric piece contributes to the whole, symbolizing how moments and people shape our lives.
Artistic and Handmade Value
Unique Craftsmanship: A memory quilt is a one-of-a-kind piece of art. The time, thought, and skill involved in its creation add to its irreplaceable nature.
Expression of Creativity: The design process allows the maker to weave memories into a beautiful and functional keepsake.
Gift Value
Thoughtful and Personalized: Giving or receiving a memory quilt is one of the most heartfelt gestures, demonstrating love, thoughtfulness, and care.
Timeless Appeal: Unlike many other gifts, a memory quilt retains its sentimental and practical value for years to come.
In essence, the value of a memory quilt lies in its ability to transform fabric and thread into a vessel of love, remembrance, and legacy. It is more than a quilt—it is a story, a connection, and a treasured piece of one’s history.
As the holiday season draws near, I want to take a moment to wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and a joyful New Year. This time of year is filled with magic, warmth, and togetherness—qualities that remind us of the importance of kindness, gratitude, and love.
To my students, thank you for your hard work, curiosity, and enthusiasm throughout the year. You’ve brought so much energy and creativity to our classroom, and I couldn’t be prouder of all that you’ve accomplished.
May your holiday season be filled with laughter, rest, and the company of those you cherish. I hope you find time to enjoy the little things that make this time so special—sparkling lights, warm treats, and the joy of giving and receiving.
Take care of yourselves, have fun, and come back ready for more adventures in the new year!
To say thank you, I have reworked the Christmas quilt of 2011 a little and include the pattern to download for free. The first layout is for a wall quilt or throw and finishes at 51″ x 51″
If you want to use the pattern to make a tree skirt, you might like to use this alternative layout.
You may choose to buy fabric for this project, or use scraps in pieces of green or red, Enjoy!
The art of quilting has long been associated with storytelling, memory, and self-expression. In Voices in Cloth, a compelling project within the larger 100 Voices series, quilting becomes more than a craft — it becomes a narrative act, a means of recording identity, and a bridge for building community. This initiative highlights the profound ways in which quilts can speak, both literally and symbolically, through fabric, thread, and personal voice.
At its heart, Voices in Cloth emphasizes the narrative aspect of quilting, with each quilt serving as a deeply personal expression of the quilter’s life, experiences, and reflections. Far from being simply decorative or utilitarian, these quilts are visual diaries — textured, layered, and rich with meaning. Every piece tells a story, unique to the maker, yet resonant to a broader audience.
The project also acts as a platform for showcasing South African identity and creativity. Quilters are encouraged to bring their cultural backgrounds, local influences, and personal histories into their designs, allowing for a vibrant and diverse display of styles and messages. This form of expression is not only creative but also deeply affirming, giving voice to quilters from across the country and highlighting the artistic excellence that exists within these communities.
Crucially, Voices in Cloth fosters a sense of community and collaboration. While many quilts are made by individuals, some include contributions or feedback from friends and fellow quilters, reinforcing the social aspect of quilting. This collaboration reflects traditional communal craft practices and strengthens bonds within the quilting community. It is not just a solitary activity but a shared journey.
To ensure these voices and stories reach a wider audience, the quilts are exhibited publicly. These exhibitions enhance accessibility, inviting viewers to engage with the works, reflect on their messages, and learn more about the people behind them. This visibility promotes appreciation of quilting as both an art form and a medium for storytelling.
Adding further depth, the project incorporates oral histories. Each quilt is accompanied by a short video in which the quilter shares their thoughts, process, and personal context. These recordings allow viewers to hear the maker’s voice directly, turning the quilts into living documents that weave together visual and spoken narratives.
Many quilters are drawn to specific themes or inspirations, often exploring topics that are emotional, symbolic, or abstract. Quilters are encouraged to create meaningful works, even if the message is unconventional or interpreted differently by each viewer. This openness to experimentation and self-expression makes each quilt a unique artistic and emotional statement.
Ultimately, Voices in Cloth stands as a vital chapter in the broader 100 Voices series, which seeks to recognize and celebrate the diverse voices of South African quilters. Through this project, quilting is elevated beyond technique and craft — it becomes a rich, multi-dimensional expression of voice, identity, and connection
Listen to Danel’s interview with John Cole-Morgan discussing the part she played in the Voices in Cloth Exhibition.
John Cole-Morgan, a passionate quilter, educator, and advocate for the arts, founded the Voices in Cloth initiative with a clear and deeply personal purpose: to celebrate, preserve, and uplift the diverse voices within South Africa’s quilting community. His motivation stemmed from a profound recognition that quilting is not merely a craft but a powerful form of storytelling — one that captures personal histories, cultural identity, and emotional journeys through fabric and thread.
One of Cole-Morgan’s core motivations was to give a voice to everyday quilters. While quilting exhibitions often highlight elite or highly trained artists, he saw an entire world of unsung creativity thriving in communities across South Africa. Many quilters, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, were producing meaningful, moving work without access to platforms that allowed them to share their stories. Voices in Cloth emerged from his desire to correct this imbalance and to emphasize that every quilter’s voice matters, regardless of their status, training, or experience.
Another key driver was his belief in quilting as a form of narrative preservation. Cole-Morgan viewed quilts as more than stitched patterns or decorative objects — he understood them as visual records of memory, emotion, and identity. In a country as culturally complex and historically rich as South Africa, he recognized quilting as a medium uniquely suited to capturing layered stories. By pairing each quilt with the quilter’s voice, through video and oral history, he created a living archive of South African life as told by the people themselves.
In addition, Cole-Morgan was deeply committed to inclusivity and representation. He believed the quilting world needed to reflect the full spectrum of South African society — encompassing different languages, races, genders, geographies, and artistic approaches. His initiative challenged conventional ideas about what a “proper” quilt looks like or who gets to be called a “quilter.” Through Voices in Cloth, he aimed to foster a quilting culture that is welcoming, accessible, and respectful of all creative expression.
Equally important to him was community building. Cole-Morgan understood the power of connection within the quilting world. Quilting circles often become spaces of support, friendship, and collaboration. Voices in Cloth was designed not only as an exhibition but as a community project — one that encouraged quilters to collaborate, contribute to one another’s stories, and share their work with broader audiences. In doing so, he helped to strengthen the social fabric that binds quilters together.
Ultimately, what drove John Cole-Morgan was his unshakable belief in the transformative power of storytelling through cloth. He knew that when quilters were invited to tell their stories — honestly, proudly, and in their own voices — it had a ripple effect. It validated their experiences, inspired others to share their own, and drew viewers into a deeper understanding of the people behind the stitches. Voices in Cloth stands as a tribute to that vision: a celebration of quilting as an art form, a history, and a voice for all. John’s Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/iQuiltStudio
Hierdie tafelloper is die kombinasie van ‘n hele paar kwilt tegnieke, om ‘n grondslag te lê vir die mees gebruikte laslapmetodes. Appliekwerk, papier fondasie laslap en tradisionele laslap word aangeraak. Dit is ook belangrik om ‘n bietjie van die wiskunde agter die laslap te verduidelik. Dit maak dit later makliker, om enige patroon self uit te werk. Goeie gewoontes word vasgelê van die eerste oomblik. Die projek kan voltooi word in 7 klasse.
This table runner is a combination of the three most used patchwork techniques – appliqué, piecing and paper foundation piecing. It is also important to learn how to read a quilt pattern and how to accurately calculate the cutting sizes of the blocks. This project can be completed in 7 classes.
Klasse begin 6 April 2024 – Classes start 6 April 2024
Please Whatsapp Danél Muller at 0824167690
A quilt will warm your body and comfort your soul
Quilting and patchwork is not a hobby, it’s a way of life. Over the last fifteen years, I have learnt many lessons and used many tools and gadgets. On this web site, I want to share the patterns, rulers and templates that have made my life a little easier
I support Up-Cycled Cloth CollectiveStop and think: How can I re-purpose this piece of cloth before I put in in the landfill?
