March 2025 | Do I Have Enough Fabric?
Working with a FQ Bundle
Last updated
Working with a FQ Bundle
Last updated
I recently got a fat quarter bundle with 5 different colored fabrics for my local quilt shop, Fabric Spark, in support of their 10 year anniversary fabric challenge. The colors are beautiful and I immediately knew what I wanted to make with it!
But I did not want to buy more of any of the fabrics. As much as I love the colors and wouldn't mind making a larger quilt, I really did not want to buy any additional fabric. I'm in my use-what-I-have era.
So, what to do?
Have you ever thought to reverse engineer your quilt design to use just the fabric you had on hand? Well, you can manipulate your quilt's design and/or size until the fabric calculator outputs the correct amount of fabric that you have on hand. Here's how I did it.
My quilt design was inspired by a mirrored pub wall at a place in Liberty Village in Toronto. I was out for drinks with some work friends and I loved the simplicity of the half square triangles. This picture was taken in 2018!
This wasn't hard to recreate in PreQuilt. Once you break down the logic of the pattern, it's really just 2 alternating HST blocks.
After running the quilt design through the PreQuilt fabric calculator feature, it told me that I'd need 1 yard of each fabric.
It's important to note that the default width of fabric (WOF) is 42" in PreQuilt. And since I had a fat quarter with general dimensions of 21" x 18", I needed to know if the cut pieces I needed would fit on a fat quarter - not full width yardage.
You can dynamically update the width of fabric to 21" to view the cutting recommendations for a fat quarter.
Click on the WOF text box.
Enter 21 and click Apply to All.
You'll see the cutting diagram dynamically update for all the fabrics.
Like I said before, I only had a fat quarter of each fabric and I didn't want to buy more. So I had to decide how I wanted to alter the design to only need a fat quarter (instead of a yard) of each fabric.
There were two options: Make the blocks smaller or Use fewer blocks.
I decided to go with the first option, which was to keep the overall design layout the same, but make the blocks 2.5" x 2.5" finished HST blocks. I found the repetition of the diamonds was more in line with the original design intention.
I also decided to not cut it so close and used the 8 at a time HST method for 48 of the 50 HST blocks (21" x 14") and then use the 2 at a time HST method for the last 2 of 50 blocks (3.5" x 3.5"). That was just perfect for me to use the fat quarters I had with a bit of scrap for something fun in the future.
We're excited to share that we have some new fabric collections preloaded in PreQuilt! What does that mean? It means, you can easily add the fabrics you like from the collections and quickly start using them in your quilt designs.
Here's what's newly added!
The Genesis of a Journey by Genny from the Quilt Block (Riley Blake)
Wildflower Wovens by Suzy Quilts (AGF)
Slow Summer by Suzy Quilts (AGF)
We're adding more collections as we collaborate with fabric designers and fabric manufacturers. We hope to have more available for you over the coming year!
I had the best time at QuiltCon in Phoenix this year. I love QuiltCon for the people. The quilts are great and it's nice to work the booth, but the reason why I get excited is because I get to see friends I only see at QuiltCon and I always meet new people every year that make the time so special to me.
Some of my personal and PreQuilt highlights:
My friend, Michelle Bartholomew, won the MQG Excellence Award for her quilt, Clamshell Jamboree! Congratulations, it was fantastic getting to cheer you on!
Our group quilt, Gathered, was juried into the show and looked fantastic!
Wednesday night dinner with new and old friends - it's a Wednesday night tradition now!
This cookie tin pin that I got from the Wonderfil Threads team! Plus check out the SNL skit as well for extra giggles.
Launching the Moon Pie Mood Ring template by Cut Once Quilts and pattern.
Fun demo on the MQG Demo stage on Saturday. Special thanks to friends who came to support me, thank you!!
We're not sure yet what our plans for QuiltCon 2026 are going to be. Our boys are getting older and missing school has more consequences now, so we're thinking about not having a booth at the show next year. This makes me both nervous for the business and excited to be able to just participate and enjoy the time away. We'll see!
