Some novelty fabrics are just too cute to cut up - enter Floral Pets by Mia Charro (read more about Mia here).
It was time to make a few 'cheater quilts" with the cutest dogs and cats ever and coordinating flower borders.
A cheater quilt features fabric designed and printed to look like patchwork or applique. All you have to do is quilt and bind. A cheater quilt can also be a panel or isolated image - the choices are endless. Basically - you don't cut up and sew back together!
I pre-washed the panels (the dog & cat yardage), and they did shrink and slightly skew. I was not fussy and straightened them up as best I could. But this video from Laura Ann Coia of Sew Very Easy has a wonderful tutorial on how to Square up a Quilt Panel.
It was a great time to pretend stitching in the 'ditch' - something I never get to do since I press my seams open.
The same rules apply to cheater quilts - starch, iron and have fun. I loved using a bright Aurifil 50wt. #2220 (light salmon) on all the quilts ( I made 3), and straight stitching lots of grids.
For each quilt I bought 1.25 yards of pet fabric for the inside and 1.5 yards for the border & binding. (Note: when I made these Floral Pets was sold as yardage not panels. Each panel now sold from Hawthorne Supply Co. has 4 rows of rectangles. I have 7 rows in my quilts - so 2 panels should be perfect to make this sized quilt).
The border fabric was cut at 6.75" and then attached. 2 yards of fun bright minky for each quilt and I was good to go!
Tip: Since your binding will come out of the boarder fabric, cut binding first. Play around with some numbers. Estimate how big your quilt will be with a border 'this many inches' - and cut your binding to fit that size. Even if you make a mistake or have to fudge a little on the border - you absolutely will have enough binding.
Note: I really wasnt thinking when I pre-washed that the panel would go wonky. I just didn't want the cute animal faces to be too crinkly when the quilt was finished. Maybe on the next cheater quilt I will not pre-wash ... but since this fabric had a big grid - a little trimming was no big deal.
These were very fun to make and if you leave off the wide border - super easy and approachable for a beginning project. A small cheater quilt is also a great way to make a minky quilt for those of you who are a little hesitant of jumping into that fluffy world of minky!
Materials:
Floral Pets by Mia Charro / Blend Fabrics
Aurifil 50wt. #2220 (light salmon)
Warm & White batting
Size: 50" x 53"
March 2019
