September 30, 2023
Guide to Precuts + Our Favorite Patterns
Quilting with precuts is a delight. Those perfectly coordinated bundles of fabric are cut to the most useful sizes and shapes. 5 inch charm squares. 2.5 inch jelly roll strips. 10 inch layer cake squares. 18x22 fat quarters.
With precuts, you can enjoy an entire fabric collection - ready to sew - with minimal waste. It’s the perfect recipe for smart, joyful quilting.
Download our free printable Guide to Precuts to answer all your questions: How many charm packs are needed for a baby quilt? How much yardage is in one jelly roll? Get to know your favorite precuts, and keep this guide handy for quick reference.
Jelly rolls are like a quilter's candy stash - colorful 2.5" strips bursting with creative possibilities! With around 2.75 yards of fabric in each, they're your fast pass to quilting fun while skipping the tedious cutting.
Jenny loves jelly rolls sew much, she has 200+ jelly roll tutorials right HERE on YouTube.
She’s done sashing, stripsets, borders, and stars. She’s done fence rails, log cabins, and pineapples. Those 2.5 inch strips of precut fabric are impossible to resist. (But why would we even try?!)
Quick Guide:
Lap/Twin: 1 jelly roll
Queen: 2 jelly rolls
King: 3 jelly rolls
Favorite Jelly Roll Patterns
The Serendipity Infinity quilt will leave you with enough scraps to make a table runner. But guess what? You’ll still have scraps. Make another table runner, and still, more scraps.
When all is said and done, you’ll have a beautiful quilt + up to NINE table runners to use as gifts! Shop the pattern and watch Jenny and Natalie transform one jelly roll and a bit of yardage into a seemingly endless string of projects.
Years ago, we dreamed up a home-grown magazine. We filled it with quilt patterns, technical education, and cozy stories for the quilty soul. We added a shower of Missouri Star magic, but left out all the ads. And that, my friends, is how BLOCK Magazine was born.
The Block Star quilt is a celebration of our favorite little idea book. It’s made with precut jelly roll strips, and the scraps become a pieced border + a bonus table runner. (Of course, we finished it off with our Chuck the Duck machine quilting pattern.)
Shop the pattern, watch the tutorial, and treat yourself to an issue or two of BLOCK Magazine!
❤ Natalie's Favorite!
Summertime was made for quilts: Camping trips, picnics, 4th of July parades. We spread out quilts to watch firework shows and wrap ‘em around our shoulders at late-night baseball games.
Summer in the Park is one of Natalie’s all-time faves. It’s a jelly roll pattern made with easy strip sets. We’ve loved this quilt for 13+ years; grab the pattern and watch the tutorial for our newest tips and tricks.
The Crow’s Foot quilt may not have the most elegant name, but it sure is pretty! This 19th-century classic has been reimagined with precut jelly roll strips, high contrast white and black fabric, and regal prints from the Morris Meadow collection by our favorite quilt historian, Barbara Brackman, for Moda Fabrics.
Gather your supplies - fabric and pattern - and cozy up for one great tutorial!
Mount Kilimanjaro towers a mind-boggling 20,000 feet above the plains of Tanzania. Misty’s husband Jake climbed the summit. (Can you imagine the view??)
Misty designed View From the Top to celebrate that journey with patchwork mountain peaks made of jelly roll strips. Grab the pattern and come watch the tutorial; the view is great!
Layer Cakes are coordinated stacks of precut 10-inch squares. They’re perfect for showcasing pretty prints or creating big quilts quickly. We love to use ‘em to stitch up half-square triangles 8 and 16 at a time. In short, there’s nothing sweeter than a slice of layer cake quilting.
Favorite Layer Cake Patterns
❤ Jenny's Favorite!
When making a disappearing quilt block, you have to trust the process. We start with a neatly pieced block. Then…we chop it up, rearrange the pieces, and stitch it back together. The result? An intricate block that looks like a million bucks!
Jenny’s favorite is the Disappearing Hourglass Hidden Stars quilt. She works her magic on a simple layer cake hourglass, and when she is finished, a secondary star block appears. Sew easy, sew fabulous.
Pick up the pattern and enjoy the tutorial!
Pinwheel quilts are as old as patchwork itself. You can find ‘em on antique quilts from the War of 1812 all the way to the Oregon Trail.
The Quarter Square Pinwheel is a double pinwheel block made with split quarter square triangles. With precut layer cake squares and a few time-saving tricks, this quilt comes together quick-as-a-wink. Those 19th-century quilters sure would be amazed!
Get all the details from the pattern, and watch Jenny’s tutorial for those helpful little hints!
Jenny’s Winter Wall Hanging has it all: Charming present blocks, little wonky stars, a simple evergreen tree, and…a pair of fuzzy-bearded gnomes that will look stylish, not just through Christmas, but all winter long.
Order this layer cake wall hanging pattern, and follow Jenny’s tutorial every step of the way!
❤ Natalie's Favorite!
In September of 2022, Natalie designed this quilt for our LeMoyne Star Triple Play tutorial. It’s a modern masterpiece with big 8-point stars and decorative shoofly sashing incorporated into each block. This pretty layer cake pattern is still Nat’s favorite.
Get the pattern and find this quilt right at the start of the Triple Play tutorial. Stick around for Misty’s quilt—she used a layer cake, too!
❤ Misty's Favorite!
Give me a rose and it’ll wilt in a week; a box of chocolates won’t last the weekend. But if you stitch me a quilt, Valentine, I’ll feel loved forever!
The Confetti Hearts quilt is sprinkled with pretty pieced hearts—perfect for a lovey-dovey gift. So grab your sweetest layer cake (don’t forget the pattern!) and come stitch with Misty!
What’s a fat quarter? Imagine this: You have one yard of fabric. You can slice it into four skinny strips. Or, you can quarter it like a kid’s ham sandwich. Both cuts are 1/4 yard, but the “fat quarter” is perfect for many of our favorite quilt patterns.
Favorite Fat Quarter Bundle Patterns
❤ Misty's Favorite!
Shine bright with Misty’s Miracle Star quilt. This show-stopping pattern is made with fat quarters by Tula Pink, so you know it’s gonna be bold and FUN. It’s made with huuuge star blocks that come together to form secondary stars. What a miracle!
Stitch up a flurry of Christmas cheer with the talented Courtenay Hughes. This sweet nativity wall hanging is made with the Starry Night quilt pattern, fat quarters, and the Wonder Curve Ruler from Sew Kind of Wonderful. Treat yourself to this very merry pattern, and be sure to watch the tutorial, too!
Designer Karen Nyberg is an artist, astronaut, and earth advocate. Combine all three, and you’ve got one gorgeous quilt!
Endangered Animals is made with Karen’s own earth-inspired fat quarters. The applique animals are portrayed in a circle, representing Earth and the connectedness of these animals - and their survival - to our planet.
The pattern includes a printout for all the animals, and you’ll meet Karen herself in the video tutorial.
Embrace your curves! Misty’s Freestyle Sunset Wall Hanging is made with the Drunkard’s Path template and freestyle curves. She’s using fat quarters with an earthy, beachy vibe—perfect for her daughter’s freshly restyled bedroom. (Check out the rest of the teen bedroom makeover here!)
Shop the pattern, check out the tutorial, and get curvy!
This quilt-as-you-go heart quilt was designed in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It’s made with fat quarters and the fabulous Jewel Template. Best of all, because these pretty hearts can be sewn by machine or by hand, you can take it along wherever you go. (Life is more fun with a needle and thread in tow!)
The charm pack is the great granny of precuts, though she debuted only 13 years ago. At just 5 inches square, charms are perfect little building blocks for an endless array of quilt patterns.
Quick Guide:
Baby: 1 charm pack
Crib: 2 charm packs
Lap: 3 charm packs
Twin: 4 charm packs
Favorite Charm Pack Patterns
Do you remember when you first clamped eyes on a precut? Designer Vanessa Goertzen sure does. It was 2010. Vanessa had just discovered she was expecting a baby girl. She raced to the fabric shop to find something pink, laid eyes on a stack of precut 5-inch charms, and a creative fire was lit. Vanessa’s Chandelier quilt is a quick and easy charm pack quilt with an on-point layout. Pick up the pattern + watch Jenny’s tutorial to learn how to make your own!
The Flower Chain combines a sweet patchwork flower block with an Irish Chain variation called Irish Change. And though it looks intricate, this pattern is made with simple strip sets and snowballed pinwheels. Jenny uses the Clearly Perfect Slotted Trimmer A and the Missouri star 10" Square Template to trim each block with precision. Get inspired with Jenny’s tutorial, and find detailed instructions and measurements in our easy-to-follow pattern.
Believe it or not, this dazzling little table runner requires just one charm pack. It’s made with itty bitty half-square triangles and half-rectangle triangles. And don't you worry! Jenny makes it easy with a few clever tips + her trusty Bloc Loc squaring rulers. Check out the pattern and tutorial; you’ll want to get started on this project right away.
The citrus-sweet Orange Peel quilt is the perfect choice for a snuggle with your main squeeze. This beloved charm pack pattern has been cherished by quilters for generations. Jenny makes hers with basic appliqué and our favorite Orange Peel template. Check out the pattern + template to see how doable this quilt really is.
❤ Misty's Favorite!
Greet your guests with a warm “hello” and a neighborhood of quaint appliqué houses. Misty Doan designed the Hello Wall Hanging project for the very first episode of her YouTube show, At Home. Almost two years later, it’s still a favorite. This project is made with precut prefused appliqué letters and the Missouri Star Small Tumbler Template for 5″ charm squares. Pick up the pattern and take a minute to rewatch Misty’s inaugural tutorial!
#MSQCShowAndTell
Published by Danae M.