Wholesale Cotton Quilting Fabric

Making your own quilted fabric...

Buying quilted fabric is easy but you can't always find the weight and color you want, to say nothing of the expense. Learn to make your own quilted fabric to have exactly what you want and save money!
What you need to create your own quilted fabric!

• - Fabric
• - Batting (Read the paperwork that comes with your batting to know how close the stitching lines need to be to stabilize the batting)
• - A backing fabric (muslin is an inexpensive option)
• - Thread - machine quilting thread is best
• - Safety pins
• - Seam guide or template

1. Preshrink your fabric to prevent it shrinking after you are finished.
2. Press the fabric and backing fabric well.
3. On a flat surface, lay out the backing fabric, wrong side up.
4. Smooth the fabric so there are no wrinkles.
5. Smoothly lay the batting on top of the backing fabric. It is easiest to roll the batting and unroll it on top of the backing fabric.
6. Smoothly lay the fabric on top of the batting with the right side up, so that the two fabrics make a sandwich out of the batting.
7. Smooth all the layers.
8. Use safety pins to "baste" the layers together without disturbing the smoothness of the layers. You will remove the safety pins as you sew. Do not try to sew over a safety pin!
9. Use a rotary ruler to mark a line that runs at 45 degree angle to the corner of the fabric... or on the bias of the fabric.
10. Set your stitch length to a slightly elongated stitch. Allow the stitches to be long enough that the fabric does not pucker.
11. Sew one line of stitches on the marked line.
12. Use a sewing machine guide to sew lines of stitching an even distance from the previous line of stitching. The spacing between the lines will be dictated by the requirements of the batting and the size of the project you will be using the quilted fabric to make.
13. Continue until you have quilted the amount of fabric you will need for a project.
14. Criss-cross your quilting stitches by quilting again from the other direction.
15. Consider using decorative stitches rather than straight stitches.
16. Quilt in curved lines instead of straight lines.
17. Use contrasting thread to make your quilting add to your fabric.

From About.com website by Debbie Colgrove

You can purchase from Fabric Wholesalers like Fabric4less.com in their Fabri-Quilt Category and the Quilt Backing Category.

Calculating Fabric Amounts for Your Quilt Project

One of the most frustrating things about making a quilt is running out of fabric before you're done. Once you've chosen the quilt size you want to make and have checked the dimensions, the next step is calculating how much fabric you need. In this guide, we look at some common quilt sizes and the amounts of fabric needed for all of the pieces.

Your Quilt's Dimensions

The first step is to pick out what size quilt you want to make. Once you do that, you need to make sure that the dimensions work-for instance, if you have a bed that sits high off the floor, you will need a longer quilt. But first, start with the standard dimensions. Here are the dimensions for several different sizes of quilts.

Lap Quilt

A lap quilt can have many purposes. It's a great size for a baby's crib quilt, for hanging on the wall, or, my favorite, for putting over your lap when you're cold.

Twin Size

Full Size

Queen Size

King Size

Estimating Fabrics, or How Many Pieces Can I Get From a Yard?

There will come a time when you will have to calculate how much fabric you need to purchase for a quilt project. One quilt block may have many pattern pieces that fit together to make the 12-inch square. The following strategy will help you calculate the amount you need for each pattern piece in a quilt block. If you are creating a quilt that repeats one type of block, you will have many similar pattern pieces (for example, when making a Double Nine Patch lap quilt). It has four 4-inch squares of the dominant color and four 4-inch squares of the accent color. Let's figure out how much fabric you will need of each color.

1. Count the number of pattern shapes you need for one block. Measure and add on the ¼-inch seam allowances to get the true size. (For each Double Nine Patch you need four 4½-inch squares of the dominant color and four 4 ½-inch squares of the accent color.)
2. Determine how many of these pattern pieces you will need for the entire quilt. (There are four squares of dominant colors in each block of the Double Nine Patch, and there are six blocks in the quilt, so you'll need 24 4½-inch squares.)
3. Measure the width of your fabric. Usually it's 44 inches.
4. Find out how many pattern pieces (with seam allowances added on) will fit across the fabric width. Divide the fabric width by the width of the pattern piece. (Forty-four inches divided by 4½ inches of the Double Nine Patch square is 9.7-but wait-you can only fit nine whole square pattern pieces in the width.)
5. To determine the length of fabric needed and how many rows are needed to fit all the squares in, first divide the total number of pattern pieces by the number of squares that fit across the width of the fabric. (Remember, we need 24 squares for the lap quilt, and 24 divided by 9 is 2.6 rows. You'll have to allow for three whole rows of fabric.)
6. Then multiply that number of rows by the length of the pattern piece, including the seam allowance. (Multiplying the 4½ inches of the Double Nine Patch square by three rows yields 13½ inches.)
7. To figure out how many yards are needed, divide the total inches by 36 inches (for the yard). Add on a 4- or 5-inch "fudge factor" to allow for mistakes. (For the Double Nine Patch, 13½ inches are needed for the rows plus a 4-inch fudge factor to equal 17½ inches. So approximately 18 inches divided by 36 inches equals half a yard. You will need half a yard of the dominant color and half a yard for the accent color.)

Now that we know the fabric yardage you need to buy for a specific pattern piece or template of your quilt, let me show you how these amounts can be put together. There are ways that you lay out your patterns, dovetailing them with borders and lattices to save fabric. I try to use every scrap of my material. It is difficult to estimate the exact amount of fabric for a sampler quilt, because each patch is different. The following table gives you an educated guesstimate for fabric yardage. Backing and batting are not included, but your pattern likely will give you this information.

*Remember, these are estimates-not everybody cuts wisely.

Sometimes it's necessary to know the amount of fabric to purchase for a specific part of your quilt. I can't tell you how many times I've had to go back to the store and buy a different fabric for a lattice or border because the one that I purchased wasn't quite right. Occasionally some quilters wait to see how the patches look before choosing the border fabric. If that happens to you, I've calculated how much fabric you'll need for each section of your quilt. So get out your pad and pencil and let's see what you'll need.

To use this table, locate the section of the quilt that you need to purchase fabric for, perhaps it's the lattice. Then look for the quilt size you are making, let's say full size, and determine the yardage you should buy.

In your quilt, you may have several blender fabrics. One blender fabric should include all the colors of your color scheme. Others will be of different values of the dominant and accent colors. You can have as many blenders as you want; I've suggested the minimum.

Now that you've decided on your project, done the arithmetic, and calculated the amount you need to purchase, it's time for the fun part-picking out the fabric. Next stop-the fabric store! Have fun, and happy quilting!

From The Complete Idiot's Guide to Quilting Basics by Laura Ehrlich