Found perfect fabric, now what?

bkay2000

10 years ago

I'm getting right into the swing of collecting fabric for future projects. I've been collecting novelty fabrics for an "I spy" quilt for my grand nephew, which is my next project. I found this one and bought a 1/2 yard for the I spy quilt along with three or four other fabrics. I've been buying patterns that I can fussy cut for a 5" square.

When I got home, I looked at this and decided it would make a great baby quilt or quilt for a youth bed all by itself. (I went back and bought 3 yards.)

The problem is If you fuzzy cut it, you end up with several sizes of squares. How do you make a quilt work with a situation like that? The Jelly fish is 4X6. The iguana is 3X7. The lion is 3X5.5. The raccoon is 5X5. The Owl is 3.5 X 4.5.

Any ideas on how to make this work for a quilt?

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Comments (7)

jennifer_in_va
10 years ago
If you truly wanted to fussy cut it for each letter of the alphabet, then that can work by putting a border around each one, then cutting them to one set size.

You could also put a wide border around each letter, and then instead of squaring them to the same size so the blocks sit perfectly straight, you could cut them so the blocks are canted to one side. Maybe you can see what I mean in this quilt...
grammyp
10 years ago
I usually choose a size slightly bigger than the largest piece in the fabric. Then I use a fabric that matches the background to "border" the pieces so they all end up the same size.
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geezerfolks_SharonG_FL
10 years ago
I'm pretty sure I'd treat this particular fabric as either a panel or work it out as a medallion.
bkay2000
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks Jennifer, I see what you mean by the angle. Thanks grammyp, that's the only thing I could think of (other than applique, which I probably wouldn't finish).

I've seen it done as a medallion and it's not very impressive. The name of the panel is "abc with me" The size of the panel is 24" high and 22" wide, so anything bigger than a wall hanging looks odd.

On this one, maybe the border is too bright? https://tiesthatbindquilting.wordpress.com/tag/panel/

This one is darling, but it's really small - somewhere around 27" tall and 25" wide, which the shop calls a "stroller quilt" or a "changing quilt". It's from http://stitchbird.blogspot.com/2014_07_01_archive.html, a quilt shop in New Zealand.

This one may go into the drawer for a while. I need to finish my 1st one and then do the "I spy" for my grandnephew first.

bk
jennifer_in_va
10 years ago
Maybe you could cut each 'row' and use them as stripes throughout the quilt, adding pieced rows between them... So, a pieced row, then A-G row, then pieced row, then H-M, etc. Then with a pieced border, it might work it's way to a bigger quilt.
geezerfolks_SharonG_FL
10 years ago
By adding borders, you can make it the size you want. No rules, just do what appeals to you.
ibquiltn4fun LindaH
10 years ago
I've seen this print but thought that the individual pictures were too close together to be able to cut apart without losing some of the picture. I think using as a panel would work but maybe with sashing that isn't quite as busy. It does tend to distract the eye. Maybe gray with a colorful border would do the trick. Good luck with whatever you decide.