How to Choose Fabric for Your First Quilt

Choosing fabric is the most fun part of a first quilt, and also where beginners feel least sure of themselves. A few simple guidelines will get you a quilt you're proud of, even if your points don't all match yet.

1. Use 100% quilting cotton

Quilting cotton is made for this. It's firm enough to cut accurately, presses flat, holds a crease and doesn't stretch out of shape. Save stretchy knits, slippery fabrics and thick home-decor weights for later projects.

2. Keep the number of fabrics small

For a first quilt, three to five fabrics plus a background is plenty. Fewer fabrics are easier to coordinate and easier to keep track of while you cut and sew.

3. Include a range of values

Pick at least one light, one medium and one dark. That contrast is what makes the pattern show up. A quick check is to photograph your fabrics together and switch the photo to black and white: you want a clear mix of light and dark grays.

4. Prints are forgiving

Small and medium busy prints hide seams that don't quite line up. Solids show every seam, which looks wonderful when it's precise but can be discouraging on a first quilt. Mixing in a few prints is a kind thing to do for yourself.

Tip: Avoid big directional prints (stripes, text, animals all facing one way) for your first quilt. They have to be cut and placed the right way up, which adds planning to every piece.

5. To prewash or not

Quilters genuinely disagree on this. Prewashing removes extra dye and lets the fabric shrink before it's in the quilt. Skipping it keeps the fabric crisp for cutting and gives that soft, crinkly look after the first wash. If you use a deep red, navy or other saturated color next to white, prewash or wash the finished quilt with a color-catcher sheet.

6. Buy a little extra

Buy about ¼ yard more than the pattern asks for each fabric. Everyone miscuts a piece now and then, and it's frustrating to run short of a fabric the shop no longer carries.

7. Preview your choices

The biggest beginner worry is whether the fabrics will look good together once they're cut up and sewn. Quilt Preview takes away the guesswork: photograph your pattern and the fabrics you're considering, and see the finished quilt in those fabrics. Not sure about one? Swap it and compare. Every account starts with 3 free previews.