Bakery Sweets?

If you overheard a couple of quilters chatting, you might think they were talking about sweets from a bakery. “I used two Jelly Rolls to make this.” “Honey Buns make great log cabin blocks.” Or “I have a Layer Cake I want to use up–do you have a great pattern using Layer Cakes.” Huh? What are they talking about? Well, in the quilting fabric world these sweets are names of very popular precuts sold by Moda, a giant among the various companies that mill and market fabric.

Precuts are a marketing tool allowing the consumer to use all or most of the fabrics in a certain line. An artist will design a line and the manufacturer will create up to three dozen different prints and color ways.

If I wanted to make a quilt using all these different fabrics, it would be costly and difficult to find a source of all the fabrics. Precuts to the rescue!!!

Precuts, prepared and bundled by the fabric manufacturer, will use all the fabrics in a line but in a predetermined size or amount. This allows the quilter to use all the different fabrics without having yardage left over–not a bad thing, but an expensive thing!

Fat quarter bundles are the largest precut packages. A fat quarter is 1/4 of a yard but cut 18″ x 21″ instead of 9″ x 42″, giving more useable yardage.

One yd. of 42” wide fabric cut into “fat quarters vs. cut into regular ¼ yard.

18” x 21”	18” x 21”
18” x 21”	18” x 21”

9” x  42”

9” x  42”

9” x  42”

9” x  42”

Honey Buns are junior versions of a Jelly Roll. They are 1 1/2 ” wide.

Two plus Honey Buns were used to make this log cabin full size quilt top.

Charms are fun–and just like the charms girls would collect and wear on bracelets–these precuts are just fun to collect and admire! A charm pack is a 5″ square of all the different fabrics in a line.

All these were made using charm packs. Mini Charms are a collection of 42 squares that are only 2 1/2 “.

Layer cakes reminds me of my new favorite cake–Hummingbird Cake with at least three layers of cake with delicious cream cheese frosting between the layers! I gain weight thinking about it, but so worth it! I digress— Layer cakes are 10″ squares– with each fabric in a line being used.

Most all of the manufacturers besides Moda have precuts–they just call them by different names. Wilmington Prints calls their precuts Karat Crystals–5″ or 10″ squares. Cotton+Steel offers precuts, simply calling them 5 ” or 10″ squares. If you are interested in creating a quilt top, precuts are excellent choice with which to begin.

So, if you see a photo of a quilt top and it is described as using a couple of Jelly Rolls, you will know exactly what was used. It will not be a sticky mess!