Guestimating Fabric

The amount of fabrics that are hitting the Shops in the next month or so is mind blowing....

Its usually best to have a plan - not necessarily on what projects you will use the fabric in (because I always buy way ahead) - more of a $$$ plan. How much are you willing to spend! also making sure when it comes time to design and make a project I'm not going to be left short.

My fabric buying Guestimating works like this

- I find that a single bed quilt tends to use 6/8 yards of fabric for a front and then about the same for the back give or take.

Binding is usually around 6/8 X 2.5inch strips = 15 inches/20 inches

I add on an extra 3 yards for a double/ king sized quilt front & back

Binding is usually around 12 X 2.5 inch strips = 30 inches

all of these are VERY rough estimates but it gives you an idea of how I shop.

I'm happy to have leftovers - they make great pillows and scrap quilts.

If I see a fabric that is great for a backing I will buy it in 3 yard lengths - easy for storage & piecing

If a fabric looks good for borders and sashing I will buy 2- 3 yards

I still love buying fat 1/4's which are great for mixing fabrics up or adding interest but I tend to stick to larger pieces. 

Anyway I have started my shopping and this is what I have so far

From top to bottom
My own numbers fabric
Vintage Modern Bonnie & Camille
Denyse Schmidt for Australian Spotlight (from my Fabric stash)
Vintage Modern Bonnie & Camille
Lizzy House castle peeps(from my Fabric stash)
Valori Wells Butterflys

All of these were bought at an Australian online retailer
Kelani Fabrics 

These gems were bought at Calico & Ivy a few days ago.
The top 6 fabrics are Anna Maria Horner's new fabric range called Field Study
A liberty of London print
& some linen

From Ballarat Patchworks online store this week I purchased the new Denyse Schmidt range Chicopee - Looking forward to using this lot.

 I also have a stack of solids coming from pink chalk fabrics

and bought not that long ago A vintage sheet & Lots of Lotta Jansdotters Echo range for backing of two king sized quilts 

Thats not including the stuff I don't have pictures of......

Although in my defence I have made 5 king sized quilts in the last few weeks and a few other things!! All to be revealed once they are published in their assorted magazines.

All the pictures are from my Instagram feed

my handle is @beaspokequilts 

Whats your most recent fabric purchase or what are you coveting in the fabric world?

Xx Siobhan

Starry night Quilt - progress

Starry night lay out & sizes here :)

Im still ploughing away with my hand quilting. I'm using lots of blues & pinks.

the flannel is nice and easy to quilt - very soft, and luckily for me Sydney is having a chilly spell. Its been very nice tucked up under the starry night quilt - sipping tea. Hopefully I'll get it done before the heat comes back!

Hope your day goes well

Xx Siobhan

Last of the floor cushions......

Third & final cushion for my kids room re-vamp

I decided to use a panel I had floating around.

I used the Eton Mess panel which I talked about a very very long time ago. 

It just happened to be the perfect size for the cushion insert I had.

I think Giant cushions are my new Favourite :)

for the back I have used the upholstery strength Ikea fabric that I talked about back here.

& for multiple reasons I did an envelope style back on the cushions, mainly because they are going on wooden floors and the kids push them around and lay all over them.

The sofa in the kids room will be my next job, it desperately needs a recover. That job needs a bit of research before I start it.

below we have the start of my next quilty project,

I'm finally cutting into my Folksy Flannel by Anna Maria Horner.

I'm off to get all the kids ready for a swim, Hot day here in Sydney. 

Summer is coming!

Xx Siobhan

Lovely Linen

 Here we have the Linen & Liberty & Anna Maria Horner fabric I was working on. 


It's a perfect baby cot size or Lounge throw. It's lovely and soft because of the sparse hand quilting. Binding was done in Liberty of London and Anna Maria Horner fabric. 


I pre washed my linen in hot water and put it through the dryer, usually I wouldn't bother but because I was hand quilting and not densely I wanted the linen to stay put! no shrinking please.

Very easy - I would highly recommend you give it a go!

I wanted the hand quilting to  look very naive, I used a number 8 perle cotton and also doubled it over for thickness.

The back view of the quilt with the hand quilting showing through :)

Usual pile of Quilts hanging around somewhere in our house

Miss 4 had to get in on the photo action - never one to miss out.

This is a chair I'm thinking of upholstering  with some quilting...... I have two of them (the blue one),

Till Next Time Xx

moving along

Next project moving along nicely :)