Using six different shades within each poinsettia gives depth and richness to the blooms, making them look like they're blooming right before your eyes. Whether your pulling from your stash or ordering fabrics online, the most important thing to keep in mind when choosing your fabrics is to create contrast and definition. Think in terms of creating variation and pixelation, not super-duper matchy-match.
Now that we have our fabrics all planned out and chosen for our Crimson Christmas quilt, it's time to prep them for cutting. Before making that first cut, put a little thought into whether or not you want to prewash your fabrics.
I'm not the quilt police and if you prewash or don't, I won't judge. However, I do want you to make an informed decision. I'm jumping up on my prewashing soapbox for just a moment to give you some valuable information to help you decide whether or not to prewash your fabrics.
Be consistent!
First, no matter what you decide to do, do yourself a huge favor and be consistent. If you decide to prewash your fabrics, prewash all of the fabrics that you're going to use for that specific project. Yes, including the binding and the backing. That way, each of your fabrics will shrink the same amount, or close to it.
If you choose not to prewash your fabrics, please test a swatch of each fabric for color fastness to make sure they won't bleed. Reds are especially notorious for bleeding, and Crimson Christmas does use a lot of reds.
I'm gonna be totally honest with you - I don't always prewash my fabrics. I tend to be an “in the moment” quilter and tend to work on a project when the mood strikes. When that happens, am I going to stop my creative flow to wash some fabric? Probably not. Instead, I usually make the best, most informed decision I can based on the fabrics I'm going to use. Plus, most commercial fabrics made these days don't require prewashing. If you're not sure if you should prewash, here's a list of fabrics that could use a good prewashing or testing before cutting them up:
- Rich, highly saturated colors - reds, purples, blues, blacks
- Hand dyed fabrics
- Batik fabrics
- Fabrics by lesser known manufacturers or from garage sales
Reasons to prewash:
- Sets the dyes, preventing future bleeding
- Removes anything in the fabric from the manufacturing process
- Realigns the grainlines - rolling fabric onto bolts often stretches and distorts
What not to prewash:
- Precut fabrics (smaller than a fat quarter) - ironing these little guys isn't my idea of a good time
Fabric Prep: starching & pressing
Please do yourself a big huge favor and starch & press your fabrics before cutting anything. Here's why it's so important:
- It stabilizes the straight grain, cross grain, and bias (SO important with 60º cuts)
- Your cuts will be more accurate
- Stable grainlines sew back together more easily
- Less stretching and pulling
You don't need anything fancy. Fautless starch (gold label) from the grocery store is my favorite and it's less than $5/can.
Here's a short video that shows you how I starch and press my fabrics:
Here's how I starch & press my fabrics:
- Lay the fabric out in a single layer
- Lightly spray with starch on one side
- Flip the fabric over to press on the other side - this allows the starch to penetrate through the fabric and it keeps the starch from sizzling away on your iron (which also keeps your iron cleaner)
- Press with a hot iron, being mindful not to stretch or pull the fabric
- Lightly spray the newly pressed side with starch
- Flip it over, and press from the other side
- Repeat if necessary
My intention is to give the fabric some body which will stabilize the grains. I'm not trying to make it stiff enough to cut into sheets of paper or playing cards. I also don't want it to be flippy-floppy. Somewhere in the middle where it feels controllable and easy to work with is great!
Should you starch and press everything before you get started? That's up to you and your personality. I tend to starch/press as I go - it's part of being an “in the moment” quilter, I suppose ;).
Do what works best for you. If it feels daunting and overwhelming to press everything at once then press as you go. If you can't get started until everything is pressed, then you do you!
Cutting the Strips:
Let's cut some stuff up!
This week, we only need to cut the red, mauve, and white fabrics. Feel free to cut the greens and background too, but we won't need them quite yet.
Refer to Krista's cutting instructions pages 2 & 3 in the Crimson Christmas pattern. Each shade of each color, along with the strip width and quantity are listed there. I also included a bonus version of Krista's cutting instructions with a fill-in-the-blank label for your own fabric colors.
You can stack and cut a couple of fabrics at the same time, or cut one at a time. Do what you're most comfortable with and what will give you the best results.
Side note: I HIGHLY recommend
Creative Grids Rulers. They have this great grippy texture around the perimeter of the back of the ruler that prevents slipping and shifting. Plus, the markings are super easy to read.
Tips for cutting accurate fabric strips:
- Starch & press first (this is a game changer for accuracy)
- Use a longer ruler (18"-24 ½")
- Place the fold of the fabric (if cutting full width) toward your belly
- Align the fold along any measurement line near the bottom of the ruler
- Adjust the ruler along the fold to measure the width you need to cut (cut wider if you need to true-up the other edge)
- Hold the ruler steady with your non-dominant hand and start cutting with your dominant hand
- Pause cutting when the cutter reaches alongside your fingertips
- Carefully move your hand up (like an inchworm) to prevent shifting
- Continue cutting and move your hand again if needed.
- Repeat to cut the rest of your strips.
Labeling the Strips:
Labels can be so helpful for planning and organizing your fabrics, especially when there's multiple shades of colors like in the Crimson Christmas quilt. If you take time away from working on the quilt, it can be easy to forget which colors you wanted to go where. So, I made a sheet of helpful labels that you can use to help identify which fabrics are which and to help keep them sorted.
See you in Week 2!
I appreciate you being here with me and I'm so thrilled to help you navigate making your own Crimson Christmas quilt. You've already accomplished so much! High-five!
I know you have a lot going on in your life, especially this time of year. Thank you for choosing to spend your time with me.
Lots of love,
💜 Cristy
