- When we start quilting, we want fabric, and we want lots of it.
(playful music) And we want it as fast
as we can accumulate it. But later, as our skills improve, and we experiment with
quilt pattern and colour, we can look at some purchases and wonder 'what were we thinking?'. Today, I have five strategies to help you deal with ugly fabric. And stay to the end when I have a fast and easy quilt pattern. So, stick with me, and
I'll show you how to do it. Hi, I'm Karen Brown of
Just Get It Done Quilts. If you're new to my channel, I give you tips, tricks, and strategies to help you make the quilt
that you want to make. And one of the best
compliments you can give me is hitting that subscribe
button down below. Sooner or later, we all have ugly fabric. Some we are given. Some are in fabric bundles
with other fabrics we love. And some we simply grow out of love. Now, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Sometimes you just realise
it's out of your colour zone, or you no longer like the pattern. Or simply you've matured as
a quilter, found your groove. You've found your style. This fabric is no longer appropriate for the type of quilting you like to do. The good news is there's lots of places and lots of ways you
can use up ugly fabric. (upbeat music) Right now, something very
topical is making face masks and scrub caps. I'm going to use up a tonne of fabric that the patterns are just too large for me to use in my quilting. I'm not keen on pink. I'm not keen on flowers. And I find the scale of
this print just too large for me to quilt with. So I often use these fabrics to make bags, whether they be grocery
bags, shoe bags, or gift bag. I'm sure you have lots of other places that you can use them too.
(playful music) An important part of
piecing is having a strategy to make the block. Though your pattern may say
sew fabric A to fabric B and then to fabric C, you might find that
after making the block, your block is small, and you need to adjust your 1/4-inch mark. Or it's out of square. Or you might see an easier way to do it. Or you find some aspect of the block construction quite fiddly. I don't make a lot of curves, and I can easily get out of practise, so I always make a couple
of practise pieces. And it's much better
to make these mistakes and find the issues before
you cut your good fabric. I have a stack of fabrics in
my stash just for this purpose. You can also sandwich this
fabric with batting scraps for making practise pieces
for free-motion quilting or testing out specialty stitches or specialty threads.
(playful music) We have many places that we need fabric that will never or rarely be seen. If the fabric is in the colour
of a quilt that you're making, you can cut it up and use
it in the back of the quilt. I love this emu fabric
in these two colour ways, but I didn't like it in the third way, so I hid it in the
inside of my retreat bag. You could also hide it inside of a wallet. I'm quilting this block and
making a pillow out of it. No one will ever see
the other side of this, so I'm using some ugly fabric here. (upbeat music) I believe it was Bonnie Hunter that said if you don't like a fabric, you just haven't cut it small enough. Simply cut the fabric
into five-inch strips. If you still don't like it, cut it in half to 2 1/2-inch strips. If you still don't like it,
cut it into 2 1/2-inch blocks. You can use all of these
in scrap sampler blocks. If you haven't seen my videos
on scrap sampler blocks and scrap string blocks, I'm going to link them in the notes below. I've had many subscribers ask
me about the quilt pattern for this ugly quilt. And in my family, it's also
known as the Hospital Quilt. The block for the quilt can
be made in a variety of sizes, but for this quilt, we are going to be making
a 12-inch finished one. And we will be making 12 blocks, three columns by four
rows for a total of 12. And you'll need 12 fabrics. The quilt will finish 36 by 48 inches, which is a good lap-sized quilt. Alternatively, we can
make a quilt four columns by five rows, which means
you need 20 fabrics. And this quilt will finish
48 inches by 60 inches. So, I'm making this stack of fabrics. I'm aligning my fabrics along the selvage and in this bottom corner. I'm alternating them light and dark. Square up along the selvage. Then cut a 14-inch square. When I have a 14-inch stack, I make a diagonal cut on
the left side of the block. So I take the right piece from the top, and I put it on the bottom. Then I make pairs, the top two together. And as you line them up, they're not quite going
to match up perfectly. They're just going to be a little
bit of overlap on both sides. Then we sew. This is a bias seam,
and it's very stretchy, so be sure not to pull. Continue to sew the pairs
together until they're all done. And then I press. Now, I'm using my really
good ironing technique. If you haven't seen my video on this, I'm going to put a link
in the notes below. This makes a big difference
in the quality of your blocks. And then I stack them again. And this time, I make a diagonal cut on the right side of the block. And I take the top fabric
from the right pile, and I put it on the bottom. Then I pair. I sew. And I press again. Now we restack the blocks. This time, we're going to
turn the pile 90 degrees. But you're going to find that your edges are not
going to line up very well. But that's okay 'cause we're going to
trim them down at the end. And we're going to make a diagonal cut on the left side of the block. And this time, we are taking
the top three fabrics, and we're putting them on the bottom. Then we follow the same procedure. We pair, we sew, and then we press. And we stack them again. Do a diagonal cut on the
right side of the block. And then take the top three fabrics, and we put them on the bottom. We pair, we sew, and press. Now I chose starting with a 14-inch block so that I could use my 12
1/2-inch ruler to square up. You may find you have a couple of blocks that are smaller than the 12 1/2 inches. My personal rule is as long as I can get an
eighth-of-an-inch seam, I just trim them up at 12 1/2. But if you find that some
are even smaller than this, you might just want to
trim all your blocks a little bit smaller, maybe
at 12 1/4 or even 12 inches. And then I just lay these out on the wall. I get a lot of questions
on what is my design board. It's just sewing hack number four from my video '10 Sewing
Hacks from the Dollar Store'. I'll put a link to that
in the notes below. I have two different types of blocks, one with the dark pieces in the corner and the other with the
light pieces in the corner. And I am alternating these on the wall. This is a part that I
try not to overthink. I usually put on my timer,
and I put them up on the wall. And the only rule I'm trying to follow is I try not to have two same fabrics touch. In the end, I normally end up with one, and I don't really
worry about it too much. And isn't it funny how these
are all very different fabrics, very different pattern, but somehow your eyes just
kind of pull it all together. And it's not quite so ugly anymore. Some of you might have
noticed this really rough cut. When you're cutting through a large stack of fabric like this, not only do you have to
use your sharpest blade, but you should use your largest blade. So, I have changed here to my 60 mm. Alternatively, you can
also divide the stack into smaller stacks, and each one can have a
different cut pattern. Now, you can make this block any size. You can use layer cakes. You can also make other size blocks with the leftover fabric
from your original pieces. And I did that with my hospital quilt. If you use a different block size, just take a piece of paper and practise with a couple of cut lines just to ensure that you have
consistent piecing sizes. Just note that you'll use
up at least 1/2 an inch within every seam that you make, and you'll want an extra
one inch for trimming. People might ask, why make an ugly quilt? It's a WOMBAT, a waste of
money, batting, and time. But the great thing about an ugly quilt is you use it where you wouldn't
dare put a precious one. You can use it outside and
not care if it gets dirty. You can take it on a picnic and not care whether food spills on it. Or like me, bring it to the
hospital, bringing warmth, love, and colour into a scary,
lonely experience. And the funny thing is is that because you're using
it in all these places, there's wonderful stories and experiences that get
attached to the quilt, and it becomes quite precious for those. For a hard copy of this pattern and any of my other free
stash-buster patterns, find them on my website
at Just Get It Done Quilts under Patterns & Downloads. So if you like this video,
please give it a thumb's up. Don't forget to subscribe, and hit that bell beside
the subscribe button to be notified when I make new videos. You can also find me on Facebook and Instagram at Just Get It Done Quilts. So, take care, and I'll see you next time. (electronic pulsing)
