A small quilting glossary

The words you meet in QuiltCrafter, with the usual abbreviations.

Blocks and patches

Patch: One piece of fabric, for example one triangle.
Unit: A small group of patches, such as a half-square triangle or flying geese. Units are the building blocks of a block.
Block: A pattern of units in a grid, for example Ohio Star with 3 × 3 cells.
Half-square triangleHST: A square divided diagonally into two triangles.
Quarter-square triangleQST: A square divided into four triangles meeting in the centre. With two colours it is also called an hourglass.
Flying geeseFG: A 2:1 rectangle with one large triangle, the "goose", and two small "sky" triangles.
Stitch and flip: A small square is laid on the corner of a larger piece, sewn on the diagonal, folded out and trimmed. That gives a triangle without cutting one.
Set-in seamY-seam: A seam in which a piece is set into the angle between two others, as in a LeMoyne Star.
Strip set: Strips sewn together and cut across into new pieces.

Quilt top: The whole sewn top: the blocks with sashing and borders.
Sashing: Strips of fabric between the blocks.
Cornerstones: Small squares where the sashing strips cross.
Border: A strip of fabric all the way round the quilt. There can be several.
On point: The blocks turned 45° so they stand as diamonds, with triangles along the edges.
Medallion: A quilt built from the inside out: a centre with rounds of borders or blocks around it.
Overall: A pattern across the whole quilt without blocks, for example Trip Around the World.
Pixel quilt: Small identical squares in the colours of a photo.
60° block: A block drawn on equilateral triangles, which hexagons and diamonds are built from too.

Backing: The fabric on the underside of the quilt, a little larger than the top.
Batting: The soft layer between the top and the backing.
Quilting: The stitches through all three layers, which hold them together and draw a pattern.
Binding: The narrow strip of fabric that closes the edge of the quilt at the end.

Number: A place in the palette. The patches remember the number, not the fabric, so change the fabric in one place and the whole quilt follows.
Colorway: The same quilt in other fabrics.
Scrappy: Many different fabrics instead of one, so each patch gets its own.
Precut: Fabric that comes cut: charm (5" squares), layer cake (10" squares), jelly roll (2½" strips), fat quarter and fat eighth.
Seam allowance: The extra fabric for the seam that the cutting chart adds: ¼" in inches, 0.75 cm in centimetres.
Template: A full-size shape to cut from, for pieces that cannot be cut with a ruler, such as curves. A pattern is something else: a block or quilt you start from.
Stash: Your collection of fabrics. In QuiltCrafter, the fabric library.