How to Finally Use the Fabric You Love
Posted by Paula Doyle on Aug 9th 2018
I’ve always loved fabric. As a quilter, I feel blessed to live in a time when there are really useful palette fabrics I can rely on over and over again for my creations, but the fabrics that pull at my heartstrings are the beautiful collection fabrics which come out in the spring and autumn of each year. You know the fabrics I’m talking about . . . it’s that fabulous fabric that you’ll only see once in your local quilt shop and never be able to find again, so you buy a three-yard cut to add to your stash. It’s a fabulous large-scale print, and you have NO idea how you are going to use it in your future creation, but it’s ready and waiting for you. Maybe it’s a print with fabulous felines, or a big splashy floral, or perhaps a wonderful print of guitars and musical instruments, and there it is, sitting in your stash, and you stroke it every time you come across it. Well, I’ve got the perfect solution for you . . . make an Easy Stack Quilt!
When I started writing my new book Easy Stack Quilts (C&T Publishing 2018), I found I had twenty-six pieces of such fabrics in my stash. Most were three-yard cuts, but I also had more than three yards of some of the fabrics (remember, I really LOVE fabric!). At the time, I was recovering from a major illness and had difficulties standing, so I was delighted that I had quilting projects that would keep me busy and interested during my recovery and could be done entirely from the seated position, from stacking the fabric repeats, to rotary cutting the shapes, and then on to piecing the blocks and quilts. In the two years it took me to write the book, I made over thirty bed-sized Easy Stack quilts, mostly for the book, but some for wedding and family gifts too.
The premise of the book is making simple kaleidoscopic blocks (and then quilts!) using four stacked repeats of the printed fabric. There are three simple Easy Stack blocks, and eight Easy Stack quilt settings, each with full instructions for making four quilt sizes.
The three Easy Stack blocks are:
Easy Stack Four Patch block
Easy Stack Bright Hopes block
Easy Stack X-cut block
But the best thing about Easy Stack Quilts is how much fun I had and continue to have making the quilts. The blocks are simple and are all rotary cut and machine pieced, with no fussy cutting. There are lots of design options too, and all with no wasted fabric ! I even developed a clever way to use up any leftovers to make even more Easy Stack blocks.
I can’t wait to get started on my next Easy Stack quilt. I’ve used up my original stash, but there are always more collection fabrics waiting to be bought, and I just can’t resist temptation.
