Wish Upon a Quilt Blog

If you are familiar with Johnny Gruelle’s lovable character Raggedy Ann, you will know that she is a kind and adventuresome little rag doll. Raggedy Ann has moved on to a new mistress who accidentally left her at Wish Upon a Quilt overnight. Her new mistress was distraught over her absence but Raggedy had a great adventure.

Raggedy Ann kept marveling at the beautiful fabrics and patterns since she last visited the mercantile with her Mistress Marcella.  She had great fun watching how the Accuquilt Go cutter worked.

Raggedy inspecting the Go cutter

She even gave it a whirl herself.

Raggedy giving the Go cutter a Whirl

She hoped her new mistress would make a new quilt for her bed with the Critter shapes just like the one from the Accuquilt Go cutter trunk show hanging in the store. It is from the book Quilting on the Go. 

Raggedy was impressed with the new Martelli rotary cutters. She watched a video on how they are used. She kept saying “My my!” after she saw how the blades where so sharp that they could cut through and aluminum can and then cut through multiple layers of fabric and a single layer of fabric without a hitch.

Raggedy had fun sliding down the new laminated fabrics, and playing blocks with the Jelly Rolls. She took a cat nap in the fat quarter bins after all of the excitement. She was very tired but happy when her mistress finally returned to collect her.

Precuts are getting more and more attention as those pretty Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes, Charm Packs, Sweet Boxes and Honeybuns catch our eyes. Wish recently received new orders of Bali Pops, Neptune, and Fresh pre-cuts. Most quilters recognize the convenience of the pre-cuts but some wonder what to do with them. So we are all searching for the great patterns that are labeled for those beautiful Jelly Rolls, Charm Packs, and Layer Cakes. Moda has  several “cheat sheets” that can show you some common ways to cut Layer Cakes and Charm Packs. They also are very good about offering free quilt patterns for their various fabric lines. Don’t feel like you have to be limited to that fabric line. There is nothing to say that you can’t use a different line.

Moda’s Basic Measurements sheet gives estimates on the size of quilt based on the number of Layer Cakes, Jelly Rolls, or Charm packs.

Loose Change by Claudia Plett and Lee Ann Weaver has some great patterns that are adapted to Charm Packs (referred to as nickels in the book), Layer Cakes (referred to as dimes), and Fat Quarters. Some can be completed with Jelly Rolls too. It’s a fun book. More Nickel Quilts by Pat Speth has twenty patterns for quilts made with Charm Packs.

Today, I’ve been playing with the Neptune and Fresh fabric lines in EQ6. Moda is very good about providing down loadable image files that can be imported into EQ5 and EQ6. You can find their latest swatch samples here. I like to play with new fabric lines in EQ because it helps me get a better feel for the different values and texures in the line.

I tried to pick blocks that would be pre-cut freindly. Here’s a selection of some patterns I explored.

Moda has also provided a braided easter basket project sheet. The sample is done in Swank and stitched by hand. I’m thinking you could acheive a similiar look by machine using the Bali Bowl pattern. This would be a great project for the sweet Honeybuns Cathy has in the shop now. Check out Moda’s Bakeshop for more cool projects with pre-cuts.

 So do you EQ? and what are your favorite precut friendly patterns/projects?