What is a fat quarter?

I was blown away when a couple of people interested in purchasing fabrics from my store, asked me what a fat quarter was. Was I wrong to assume that everybody who knew anything about sewing knew that already? After examining my own sewing vocabulary, I found it was a little lacking too. Especially when it comes to quilting. I have decided that if you in the land of the living, school is always in session. So, I am sharing a few new terms that I have learned just recently which pertain  to quilting.

Before I do that, I must say that quilting is not my area of expertise. However, my children keep giving me quilting books and my collection is such that I feel guilty if it isn’t used.  I may be an expert before the year is out.

Here are my newly acquired quilting fabric definitions;

• Fat Quarter -  a piece of fabric approximately 18 X 22 inches. I say approximately because fat quarters are basically a yard of fabric cut into 4 equal pieces. I sell African fabrics in my ecrater store and many times authentic African fabrics are narrower than others. So when cut into fat quarters the size will be smaller.
• Jelly Roll – a jelly roll is a collection of 40 pieces of coordinating fabrics 2.5 inches wide by the width of the fabric. At first, I thought these are expensive. But when you realize the cutting and coordinating are done for you, they can be well worth it. If you are fabric coordinating challenged like myself, think of the frustration you will save.  If you need inspiration on what to do with them, there is a great book of jelly roll quilt patterns called “Jelly Roll Inspirations  ” by Pam and Nicky Lintott.
• Charm packs – are collections of 5 inch squares of fabric. It’s a popular size for quilters.
• Layer cakes – Layer Cakes are collections of 10″ x 10″ squares of fabric by Moda fabrics, maker of high quality cottons for quilting.  Layer Cakes are available by collection and usually include 42 pieces of fabric, though the numbers may vary.
• Honey buns – Honey Buns are collections of 1.5″ x 44″ strips of fabric. Made by Moda Fabrics, they are available in select collections and are especially helpful for the tiniest cuts in quilting. Honey Buns typically include 40 strips of fabric and are a narrower version of a Jelly Roll.

There are many wonderful books to be found on how to use these fabrics. Amazon.com is a great place to start looking. Signing off for now – in the mean time, keep sewing, quilting, knitting, crocheting – it’s impossible to list them all.

Making a King Size Duvet Cover

Making a king size duvet cover? Sounds very uninteresting. After all, it’s just a big ol’ rectangle with an opening to put your comforter in. I thought it was so simple as to almost be insulting. Wrong!!!

It all started when I heard my son-in-law say to his mother “We only have 1 duvet cover” as if he were apologizing. I thought that will be my gift for this Christmas. Even though I am an avid sewer, I must confess that at first, I looked into buying a set. All the ones I liked were at least $300, which was beyond my budget, even for my dear children. Nothing is too good for our children, right? I can make one, that won’t be too hard.

Ffirst you have to know the size of your comforter. While searching my data bases, I found 109″ x 96″ as normal king size comforter. This is what I’ll go on. Then find a fabric, because width will tell you how much fabric to buy. Many decorator fabrics are $15 and up per yard. If you can find one 110 ” wide, you will only need 3 yards to do the top of the duvet or 6 yards if using the decorator print for both sides. But I couldn’t find any that width that would work for me. There were some at 102″ but you have to piece and double the amount of yardage for one side. So you need 12 yards total and that doesn’t include the shams yet. If the fabric is 45″ wide you need 9 yards for the top and 18 yards for both sides. Three hundred dollars is starting to look better and better. I am signed up to recieve the daily specials at Fabric.com. I have gotten some really good deals from them and they sent a decorator special just when I needed it. A beautiful fabric, pictured below, for $3.99 per yard (a 1 day only special) and 56 inches wide. I was so happy to buy 10 yards (for the top an king size shams only; I still need backing fabric). When the fabric came the print was much larger than I had anticipated, and the fabric had a texture and heavier weight than I thought. Didn’t count on needing extra for matching the print. ARGHHHH!!! It’s no longer on sale! I have been sewing for too many years to get into this kind of delima.

Something told me to look at IKEA’s comforters to check their sizes, because that’s where they bought it. This should have been step 1. All of IKEA’s comforters were 102 x 86 which makes a big difference when calculating the yardage. I cut three pieces 89 inches long and had more fabric left over than anticipated because I bought based on a 96′” length, not 86″ . 

At this time, I have matched the print and basted the 3 pieces together. I found a backing fabric that is 105 inches wide, perfect width, but not so perfect color: white flannel, they only use white sheets. Oh well, who needs perfection? There are 3 nice ways to keep the duvet closed; snap tape, ties, and zipper. The ties appealed to me the most, but I decided on snap tape for convenience and ease of sewing. Ties should be placed every 10 inches and with a king, that’s about 20 ties. Snap tape and zipper are about equal in effort to apply. As this project is not yet finished, there is still more story to tell. I think the ending will be a happy one.

Decorator fabric for King duvet Cover

 I will post pic’s of the finished project as soon as possible. This is the fabric. If you look close at the middle of the picture, you can see the seam where I matched the print with hand basting.

Hello Fellow Crafters!

Welcome to Notes of a Needler at Allcrafts Blogs. I am an avid sewer, knitter, and crocheter, but I love all things handmade. I want to share that love with you.

Right now, it is smack dab in the middle of the Christmas season and I am in a mad rush to make as many gifts as I can before the big day. I always say I am going to start early, and then it comes down to 2 weeks to go and late nights, and I don’t drink coffee.

I am new to to blogging, so bear with me while I learn the system. I will post pictures of my projects as I finish and I welcome your comments, an expert advice and pictures that you may want to send. You can seesome of my favorite crafty links at Dena’s Sewing and Crafts.