Fat Quarters Session 5: Additional Pre-cuts & Resources
National Quilters Circle EditorsDescription
Well of course I would love for you to use all of the patterns that I provided for the fat eighths as well as the ideas I provided for fat quarters. There are so many other resources out there for things to do with fat quarters, fat eighths, and additional pre-cut fabrics. So again, you can get bundles of fat eighths and bundles of fat quarters which if you plan to make a larger size quilt, especially a full-sized quilt, something other than maybe a throw or even a table runner, you're going to want a collection plus additional fabric or even maybe two of the same collection so you have enough fabric to be able to make an entire full size quilt. So some of the other resources that you can find that give you information on things that you can make with specific pre-cut fabrics are pattern books. These are available, a lot of your local fabric stores, your quilt stores, definitely available online.
And this is one that uses completely fat quarter. So you're making fat quarter quilts. So you can see in here, it gives you fabric requirements for multiple different sizes of quilts and shows you how you can use your fat quarters, tells you if you're going to need additional fabric. Sometimes when you are making a fat quarter quilt if it requires maybe a sashing strips, things like bindings, and you don't want those to be pieced bindings you will need to have longer strips of fabric. So not everything can be made from a fat quarter or a fat eighth, but fun books like this that are specifically for fat quarters have lots of fun designs that help you utilize and maximize the amount of fabric you can use from your fat quarters.
As I mentioned before, you can buy bundles of fabrics, whether that's fat quarters or fat eighths. Sometimes they come in smaller bundles that can have maybe six to eight fabrics. You can find 10 fabric bundles or 12 is a very common number of pieces of fabric to find in your bundle. And you can find patterns that are specific for a certain amount of fabrics in a bundle. So this is an entire book of quilt patterns that start with 12 fat quarters which is what you would get in a bundle.
So these are fabrics that are all coordinated together perfectly. So you can use them with one of these fun quilts that all starts using a bundle. So if you have something in particular, a certain pre-cut bundle that you've purchased that you want to use, find a pattern that helps you maximize that fabric. Obviously there are other pre-cuts aside from fat quarters and fat eighths, even if they are some of the most fun to use. And those include things like jelly rolls, charm packs, charm squares, and things like that.
There are multiple patterns available that use many different types of pre-cuts, even altogether in the same quilt. So here is another pattern book that uses pre-cut fabrics. Not one in particular, not just a fat quarter, but uses different kinds of pre-cut fabrics. And when you open the pattern booklet and look inside it will tell you whether it's jelly roll friendly or whether it is a different type of friendly. So this one is a layer cake friendly meaning you can use that pre-cut kind of fabric.
So a lot of patterns and quilt patterns these days use pre-cut fabrics. They're easy to find, readily available, lots of fun, and pretty addicting once you start buying them. So there are some common pre-cut fabrics. Fat quarters and fat eighths are what we've talked about all day. Jelly rolls are very common in terms of making strip quilts, using them for bindings.
Charm squares and layer cakes are 10 inch and five inch square fabrics. Also very common to find. But here are some pre-cuts that maybe aren't as common to find that you may have not seen in your local fabric store, or may only be available online. This first one here is called a jolly bar and this is a 10 inch by five inch rectangle. So jolly bars come from Moda Fabric and they are again a collection of pre-cuts.
So they usually are coordinating fabrics or some sort of color where it all matches. And they not only come together in a fun, little bundle but they usually come with a quilt pattern with each of the bundles that sort of tells you how to use it and gives you tips on how to use it. So here are multiple jolly bar options. Those come in all sorts of fun colors and designs. Another fun pre-cut that you may not have known existed was pre-cut triangles.
And so this is called a turnover and this is a six and a half inch square triangle. So if you are going to be putting together a quilt that requires lots of triangles and you don't want to be cutting out squares and then cutting your own triangles, you can buy them pre-cut in triangles. Another pre-cut that is available, which looks similar to a jelly roll but is not, is what's called a honey bun. And so this is skinny strips. So normally a jelly roll is 2 1/2 inch strips.
Skinny strips are 1 1/2 inch strips. Other than being a little bit skinnier, there's nothing different about the bundle. They're still the same either collection of fabric or different colors of fabric. They are the width of fabric and you generally get around 40 to 42 of them in a bundle. They are just skinnier than your normal jelly roll.
So I hope you play around with all sorts of fun pre-cut fabrics. Try out some of these more hard to find pre-cut fabrics that you may have to make up your own pattern for, But after this class, I hope you have a lot of ideas on how to use them. And I definitely hope you give fat eighths and fat quarters a try and use them in your next project.
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