Quilting kits

[newbiequilter]

Have any of you used a kit to make a quilt? Did you enjoy using it, was there enough fabric and good directions? What type of quilt kit, and where did you buy it? Did you think the price was fair? Was the fabric good quality?

I've been looking through a catalog I received and the quilt kits look so nice, but I'm wondering if I would enjoy making a quilt that way.

Pat

[Dragonfly]

Re: Quilting kits

**Warning, warning** Essay to follow:

It is a little difficult to answer some of those questions as the answer would differ depending on who was putting the kit together.

Kits can be alot of fun and they certainly take a lot of the work out of getting started on a quilt, no time consuming choosing of fabric and calculating amounts, you know what is in the kit works, and you have seen the finished quilt (via a photo etc). Instructions are generally good, particularly if the quilt has actually been made by someone to test the pattern. But again this is highly dependant on the source and if it comes with a commercial pattern, it should be ok but handwritten instructions can be tricky because the person may assume levels of knowledge that you don't have, lots of variables here. I've seen really bad instructions in magazine patterns so it's hard to say for sure. One thing to watch for is that sometimes a fabric can be sunstituted in a kit that is recut so if possible ask if the kit fabric is true to the photo, this tends to happen more with QS's as they run out of a particular fabric.

If you are buying form a QS then the quality of the fabric will be the same as they have in their store generally and should be good. If you are buying from a large mail order company then all bets are off, you could be getting anything and I would suggest you try one of their small cheaper kits first to assess the fabric quailty before buying a large item.

What you get is normally the correct amount of fabric but I have experienced kits where they sell far more fabric than is needed for the design because the pattern is computer based and does not allow for our thriftiness in cutting. Very few would have insufficient fabric, I have heard of it happening but the QS in question simply mailed out extra fabric to the lady. Again large mailorder companies, who knows, I doubt they would err on the not enough side but I also doubt they would help out if that was the case.

As to price, they are generally only a little more than the cost of the fabrics and pattern, usually not enough more to even cover the time cost of preparing them but be wary, do a quick mental calculation on any you like to be sure. The advantage of a kit that makes it worth paying that little extra is that it does in fact save you money because the kit contains only the fabric you need for the design so particularly in applique type kits with small pieces, you are not having to buy a minimum cut of fabric you may only need a couple inches of.

I hope I've answered all your questions without frightening you away. My recommendation would be that kits are a great way to do a quilt and you get the benefit of experienced quilters in the selection of fabrics etc. If you see soemthing you absolutely love, go for it and have fun.

[debinmalaga]

Re: Quilting kits

I'm almost done with a quilt I'm making from a kit, and I've enjoyed the experience. You have far less cutting to do, depending on the kit, mine was Bohemian Treasures, sold exclusively by Joann's (I think). It's called a quilt block of the month kit, but I jumped in and just made the whole thing. There are 12 kits (one per block) and a kit for setting and finishing the top. I used yardage for the back.

I think it was pricey, but if you'd like to save time on some of the chores like cutting, it might be worth it to you. I looked at it as a way for me to get to sewing and quilting sooner, and with a guarantee that I wouldn't run out of anything and that everything would match! I actually learned a bit about matching fabrics by noticing what worked (very often my own inspirations do NOT come out as planned :-) ).

I was very happy with the instructions and (so far) I am very happy with the result. I'm just about to finish quilting it and do the binding.