Quilt to Give: Step One—Sort Your Fabrics

Quilt to Give: Step One—Sort Your Fabrics

This post kicks off the Nancy Zieman’s Quilt to Give Project, where you’ll be able to make a great looking quilt from your fabric stash in 10 Easy Steps. Nancy designed our Quilt to Give project for you to use your stash to create an attractive, easy-to-make bed-sized quilt and then give it away to an individual or family in need. Making and giving a needed bed quilt is a heartfelt way of showing support and encouragement.

Find an overview and listing of the 10 Easy Steps for Nancy Zieman’s Quilt to Give at QuiltToGive.org.

Step One: Sort Your Fabric Stash!

When looking at your fabric stash, you may first feel a bit overwhelmed. You may think there are not enough leftover fabrics to create an attractive quilt.

The Quilt to Give project will give you incentive to organize and cull your fabric stash to create an attractive, well-planned quilt. Instead of creating quilt of blocks, your Quilt to Give will be made in columns. This photo shows a column unit with solid strips of fabric on the outside, with a patchy center strip.

How to sort your fabrics:

• Begin by selecting several fabric prints that will be used as inspirational fabrics.
• Gather solid-colored fabrics that coordinate or match with each print. Choose as many solids or mottled fabrics (subtle prints that appear as solid colors from a distance) as possible for this project. The solid fabrics will be used for the outside columns.
• Create several stacks of fabric, placing the inspirational fabric on the top.

• Decide which fabric grouping will be the candidate for your Quilt to Give. It may be necessary to measure the fabric (next step) to determine which stack has enough yardage to complete a quilt.
• Measure solid fabrics to make certain there’s enough fabric colors to create one or two outside column units. Yardage needed for each solid fabric column unit is 10″.

Pin sticky notes to your fabrics and write the yardage or number of inches on the notes.

Double quilt:

• A double-size quilt will have 11 column units.
• Select six solid fabrics: five fabrics are used twice and the sixth fabric is used for the center column unit.
• Fabric needed: 20″ of five fabrics and 10″ of one fabric.

Column Layout Options

Depending on your fabric stash, you may use only two or three fabrics – alternating column colors.

Or, select a different color theme for each column unit.

 We look forward to you sharing photos of your Quilt to Give color combinations!

•          Determine which fabrics will become the outside column strips. Our choice was easy, we didn’t have enough yardage of the red and black fabrics.

 It may be necessary to buy one or two fabrics to create an attractive color combination. Oh darn … time go shopping!

• Gather more prints and solid fabrics to be used for the patchy center strips. Notice our short yardage of  black and red is now within the patchy stack!

Plan your quilt by printing our Quilt to Give Cutting Worksheet–Twin Size.

Or, print a Quilt to Give Cutting Worksheet–Twin, Double, Queen and King

The process of cutting our fabrics took only about two hours.

That’s it! Step 1 is complete! Next up, Step 2 …

Review Upcoming Steps

Step 1—Sort out fabrics from several stashes

Step 2—Cut column strips and center patchy strips 

Step 3—Stitch column lengths

Step 4—Stitch the patchy center columns

Step 5—Create the columns

Step 6—Piece the quilt top

Step 7—Audition borders

Step 8—Add borders

Step 9—Layer and quilt your creation

Step 10—Binding and labeling

Quilt for Others with “Quilt to Give” Learn how to set-up and organize a Quilt to Give Event.

The gift is in the giving!

Team Nancy Zieman

Nancy Zieman Productions. LLC.

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