Just How Much Fabric Do I Need?!

Are you wondering just how much fabric you’ll need to make a whole National Park quilt!? The thought could be overwhelming, but you’ll be surprised at how little fabric a quilt takes!

I like to use, and recommend, fat quarters because you’ll probably be bored of a color before you are done with the fat quarter. A fat quarter is a cut of fabric that is a half yard, cut in half widthwise to create a 1/4 yard cut that allows for a more usable area of fabric. It can sometimes be tricky to get large designs out of a 1/4 yard widthwise. A fat quarter allows for more versatility.

My patterns are all designed to fit together, and specifically designed to maximize a fat quarter. The Road Trip pattern was designed originally for full time RVers with limited space!

Most patterns will take 3 colors of fabric, even then you won’t need all of the outlined section. You will easily get 15 4.5″ blocks out of one fat quarter, that’s assuming that you use ALL of a 5″ section for a block. Many blocks you only need a little bit of one color. You will likely be bored with a cut of fabric before you use it all! I’ll bet you have lots of fabrics in your stash or scrap bin that will work MARVELOUSLY!!

You also don’t need to purchase yards and yards of fabric. Because of the size of the blocks, you’ll be able to use scraps from your scrap bin. Chances are you are throwing away little bits of fabric that could be used for a National Park Quilt! I keep scraps as small as 2″ (sometimes even less).