Quilting supplies by stage
What you need to cut, piece, quilt and bind a first quilt.
Bobbin's checklist
A rotary cutter, a self-healing mat and a quilting ruler cover most beginner cutting.
A rotary cutter, a self-healing mat and a quilting ruler cover most beginner cutting.
£Cutting and piecing
- Rotary cutter, mat and acrylic ruler: fast, accurate straight cuts.
- Quarter-inch foot: for the standard quilting seam.
- Cotton or all-purpose thread: the thread you piece and quilt with.
- Thread conditioner (optional): The Sewing Directory says a conditioner such as Taylor Seville Thread Magic reduces breakage and tangling, ideal for hand quilting.
- Quilting needles 75/11 or 90/14: SCHMETZ makes these specifically for piecing and quilting.
££Basting and quilting
- Curved safety pins or basting spray: hold the sandwich.
- Wadding: cotton or cotton blend is easy to quilt.
- Walking foot: feeds layers evenly.
£££Finishing and more
- Binding clips: hold binding without pins.
- 6.5in and 12.5in square rulers: many quilt tutorials use 6.5in or 12.5in blocks.
- Free-motion foot: for curved and stippled quilting later.
Skip for now
- Lots of specialist rulers before you know which patterns you like.
- Polyester-cotton fabric mixes for patchwork: they press and behave differently from quilting cotton.
Sources
All checked 1 November 2026. We read these; we did not test the products ourselves.
- SCHMETZ: Needle Guide
- The Sewing Directory: Best Quilting Tools
- The Sewing Directory: Beginner’s Guide to Wadding
- YouTube: How to Use a Rotary Cutter - Updated (Professor Pincushion)
- YouTube: How to sew a quarter inch seam for quilting with confidence (Pretty Simple Sara)
- Cotton Patch
- Lady Sew & Sew
- Sew Essential
- Empress Mills
- Hobbycraft