Precut Patchwork Party is full of fun, modern projects!

Thank you to FreeSpirit Fabrics for asking me to be a guest blogger. I am so excited to tell you about my newest book for Creative Publishing International – Precut Patchwork Party. As the tag line says on the cover of the book, it’s full of “modern projects to sew and craft with fabric strips, squares and fat quarters”.

I have been a huge fan of FreeSpirit precut fabric bundles for a long time . I often pick them up with absolutely no idea of how I will use them. The colors and patterns just look so pretty all together in a bundle.

There are lots of patterns and ideas available for using precuts charm squares, strips and fat quarters to make quilts. But I wanted to design a collection of projects for this book that were everything but quilts. So Precut Patchwork Party will show you how to make a variety of home dec projects, as well as wearables, accessories and gift items. I’ve included lots of basic sewing information, tips of working with precut fabrics and several of my favorite sewing techniques like fabric rick-rack and rosettes that can be made from folded precut strips.

Here is one of my favorite projects from the book:

Tisket Tasket Fabric Basket (Insert photo of baskets.)

Fabric strips from Kathy Davis’ Blossoming collection are used to make these woven fabric baskets. Make a few to organize your spools of thread and notions in your sewing room or use one to hold a casserole dish (and sew a coordinating lined napkin with a couple of fat quarters).

The beauty of working with bundles of precut fabrics is that they are coordinated by color or theme or designer collection and all the fabrics work well with each. Mix and match as you like. You really can’t go wrong. And sewing with precuts is really easy - lots of straight sewing. All the projects in my book utilize the standard sizes of precuts so you can get started right away with very little time spent cutting fabric (not everyone’s favorite part of any sewing project).




Elaine Schmidt



The projects in this book are perfect for a new sewist as well as someone who has been sewing for awhile. They all are constructed with very basic sewing techniques. Anyone who makes quilts and wants to do something new with their stash of precuts will find inspiration. So next time you can’t resist buying those beautiful bundles at the quilt store, know that there is a lot you can make with them, other than your beautiful quilts.

Editor's Note: Tell us why you love to sew with precuts and we will select on random commentator to win a copy of Elaine's book along with a set of precut bundles so you can get creative the minute you win. Winner will be drawn on Monday, February 18.