3 Yard Kits, Express Yourself!

3 Yard Kits, Express Yourself!

Some quilters avoid kits because they don't want to make a quilt that looks just like one everyone else is making. Usually a quilt kit gives you no room to interject your creative impulses. But with Fabric Café 3 yard kits you have lots of choices that help turn your 3 yards into a quilt that is uniquely yours. Here we have, 3, 1 yard cuts of fabric from the Fabric Café kit, Calypso Cats, a new quilt kit we just posted on www.fabriccafe.com.



When I first started designing 3 yard patterns, I was intrigued with the way I could move the fabric around and make the quilt look different by just changing the fabric position. Each of my patterns requires one yard of fabric for each of 3 positions in the quilt. As long as you cut all the same fabric for each position, you can move the position in which you place the fabric. Let's explore how you can take these 3, one yard cuts of fabric and make your quilt look different just by changing either the position of the fabric in the pattern, or by changing the pattern that you choose to make.

First, Let's move the fabric positions around. I suggest that you select the largest print in the #1 position. This means when you cut the fabric, the largest print will be placed in the largest block of the quilt. Next select your darkest fabric for the # 3 position. This will be your border. The remaining fabric is placed in your #2 position.



Now look at the 2 quilt tops below. On the left is Windmill 3 yard quilt pattern made by putting the largest print in the #1 position and the darkest in the #3 position. On the right, we swapped those positions and put the darkest fabric in the #1 position and the largest print in the #3 position. When you change the positions like this it looks like you've used a different pattern.



Now let's take the same 3, one yard cuts and make a quilt with our Pin Wheel quilt pattern (left) or the Picture Perfect quilt pattern which is in my new book, Quick 'N Easy 3 Yard Quilts (on right). Each of these will make up in about 8 hours.



If you need to finish a quilt really fast. Your might choose one the following 3 yard quilt patterns. Checkmate on the left, Sew Quick on the right. You can usually finish each top in about 6 hours.



It's a fun exercise to take 3, one yard cuts of fabric and know you could achieve so much diversity by simply changing positions of the fabric, or changing the pattern. Many customers tell me they can make the same pattern over and over because they never get bored. The tops all have their own unique personality!

New Feature in our Web Store!

We are introducing a new feature on www.fabriccafe.com! You can see our newest 3 yard quilts made with a secondary pattern suggestion. Although only the newest kits have this feature, if you like it, let us know and we will do more. Here's how to check it out:

Go to http://tiny.cc/CalypsoCats. When the page opens you will see the fabric swatches on the left and a Pin Wheel quilt top on the right. Now run your cursor across the Pin Wheel quilt photo and a secondary quilt will pop up. Isn't that neat! Now tell me if we should continue to add this feature to all our kits.

Bonus Information

What if you already have the quilt pattern that is shown in the kit photo? Simply write a note in the comments section of your order that you would like to substitute the pattern. Be sure to tell us which individual pattern you would prefer. We will send that one as your free pattern. As I have shown here, any pattern works with any 3 yards, so you might as well get a pattern you don't already have!