Quilting guides
Practical help with the part of quilting that happens before the first cut: choosing fabric, color and contrast.
How to Audition Fabric for a Quilt (Before You Cut)
Simple ways quilters test fabric choices before cutting: value checks, the phone photo trick, design walls, and previewing the finished quilt in your own fabric.
Read the guide · 6 min
How to Choose Colors and Fabrics That Work Together in a Quilt
A friendly guide to quilt color: value and contrast, simple color schemes that always work, choosing a background, and mixing print scales so your quilt comes together.
Read the guide · 7 min
How to Make a Quilt From Your Fabric Stash
Turn the fabric you already own into a quilt you'll love: sorting your stash, picking a stash-friendly pattern, pulling a palette, and filling the gaps.
Read the guide · 6 min
How to Choose a Background Fabric for a Quilt
The background does more work than any other fabric in most quilts. How to pick one: value contrast, solids vs. low-volume prints, white vs. cream, and testing before you buy.
Read the guide · 5 min
How Much Fabric for Quilt Backing and Binding (With Easy Math)
Simple formulas to work out backing and binding yardage for any quilt size, with worked examples and tips for wide backing and longarm quilting.
Read the guide · 6 min
Quilt Fabric Precuts Explained: Fat Quarters, Jelly Rolls, Charm Packs and More
What fat quarters, fat eighths, jelly rolls, layer cakes and charm packs are, how big each piece is, and how to choose precuts for a quilt pattern.
Read the guide · 5 min
How to Choose Fabric for Your First Quilt
A beginner's guide to quilt fabric: why quilting cotton, how many fabrics to choose, prints that hide mistakes, whether to prewash, and how much to buy.
Read the guide · 6 min
How to Read a Quilt Pattern: A Beginner's Guide
What's inside a quilt pattern and how to use it: fabric requirements, cutting charts, seam allowances, piecing diagrams and the abbreviations that trip people up.
Read the guide · 6 min
Quilt Sizes Chart: Baby, Throw, Twin, Queen and King
Common finished sizes for baby, throw, twin, full, queen and king quilts, how much drop to allow over the bed, and how to resize a pattern.
Read the guide · 5 min