Don’t make me read all of this, take me straight to the money saving tips
Quilting Joy Meets Budget Reality
Modern quilting is all about clean lines, bold color, and the kind of fabric that makes people say, “Where did you get that?!”
Sadly for our budgets though, quilting isn’t always the cheapest hobby. Enter Spoonflower! It’s like the Etsy (well, Etsy before it was taken over by all the weird drop shipping shops) of fabric designed by indie artists (like me!) who create a wide variety of prints so whatever you’re looking for, you’ll probably find it.
With all these tempting prints and fabric options, your cart can quickly add up. Don’t worry though! I’m here to offer some suggestions on how to choose the perfect Spoonflower fabric for your next modern quilt and save money in the process.
Fabric Types for Quilting: Spoonflower 101
Before we really dive in, let’s talk about the goods. Spoonflower offers 30 different fabric types but we’ll dive into the five that they recommend for quilting:
✪ Petal Signature Cotton® – soft, easy to work with, and lowest cost of all the options, shows off color more vividly
✪ Cotton Poplin – lighter weight than the Petal Signature Cotton®, less shrinkage, more muted color, more structured
✪ Organic Cotton Sateen – wider, sateen weave for a more luxe appearance and feel, great for something fancier, more expensive
✪ Wide Cotton Sateen – like the Organic Cotton Sateen but a whopping 116 inches (9.6 feet), perfect for quilt backs, saving you the time piecing together a backing
✪ Minky – great for cuddly baby quilts, napped fluffy finish, 100% polyester
You can get allllll the details here.
All About the Aesthetics: Picking Prints
This is where the real fun begins!
You can choose your own adventure when it comes to shopping on Spoonflower.
✪ You can browse their current featured collections for quilting, where you’ll find a handful of themes with approximately 20 designs in them.
✪ You can shop their featured trending themes across all fabric types.
✪ You can search through all designs available by typing what you are looking for into the search bar or by using the new image search feature by uploading a photo and using that to find similar designs if you saw something that caught your eye somewhere.
✪ The most choose your own adventure choice!
You can use the filters on the left side to help you narrow down your options. You’ll want to start by choosing fabric if you haven’t already. You can also go ahead and choose your fabric type if you already have one in mind.
From here you can sort by:
✪ best selling (obvious!)
✪ best match (if you entered a search, this might give you closer results)
✪ most favorited (designs that have a high amount of hearts)
✪ newest (the freshest designs on the site)
You can also filter by topic. Clicking on the topic will open more detailed filters so Animals could lead to Pets which could lead to Dogs, Cats, Hamsters, and more.
You can also filter by Style or Color.
✪ You can shop by designer. If you found one you love, check their links or search for their name and sort by Best Match for the best result.
Money Saving Magic: Quilting on a Budget
Yes, Spoonflower is pricier than JoAnn Fabric (R.I.P.) but with these tips, you can make amazing quilts and save some money.
✪ Sign up for Spoonflower’s email newsletter or follow them on Instagram to be alerted of current promotions which are fairly frequent so you’ll rarely have to wait long for one to come along.
✪ Check the scale of the design that caught your eye by clicking the design and looking at the photo with the ruler included around the edges (highlighted purple below). A design may look amazing but a main motif the size of a cat may not be what you want for your project. If it’s not the right scale, you can click the designer’s name to go to their shop (shown by the pink arrow on the right of the photo below). They may have the design in a different scale already available or a way to contact them for scale changes in their shop bio.
✪ Buy a swatch or fat quarter first to make sure you love the color and scale before you commit if you’re going to use one or two prints for a whole quilt. Doing this is also suggested if you’re looking to pair Spoonflower prints with existing fabric in your stash.
✪ My biggest money saving tip: Fill A Yard!
There are two reasons for this:
✪ You can use the Fill A Yard option to help you decide if the prints you picked will work well together before you buy them! (whether you buy the fill a yard or not)
✪ If you want to buy small amounts of many prints, this will save you the most money vs buying a bunch of swatches or fat quarters.
Here’s how Fill A Yard works:
Option 1:
You can go to a designer’s shop and check their designed collections, found under their profile picture and bio on the left.
Often designers will create collections of designs that will work together in the same color palette.
Sometimes this isn’t the case though, sometimes it’s just a way to group designs by subject so you don’t have to go through all the designs in their shop looking for something but you’ll know at a glance which type it is.
Option 2: You can add designs that you like to your own collection
Instead of adding to cart, click Save to Collection (shown by the pink arrow).
You can create different collections for different projects if you want.
Now that you have your collection, open it and click on Start Designing at the top. Choose your template. If you’re just testing a couple designs, you can choose a smaller split. If you want to buy prints on Petal Signature Cotton® or Cotton Poplin, pick the 1 yard with up to 42 designs. For the Organic Cotton Sateen, you can pick the 2 yard options with 12 or 48 designs. For Minky, you can pick the 2 yards with 48 designs.
Then you’ll click on the design that you want on the right and then click a box on the template to the left to fill it with that design. If you change your mind, just select a new design and click on the box that you’d like to refill.
Each box on the 1 yard with up to 42 designs is 6 inches by 6 inches.
Each box on the 2 yard with up to 12 designs is 8 inches by 8 inches.
Each box on the 2 yard with up to 48 designs is approximately 9 inches by 9 inches.
Arrange them to your liking and see how the prints you chose play together. Then you can either add to cart or go back to the home page to abandon your Fill A Yard test project.
You can do this at any time and add it to your cart while you wait for a sale. Know that you have time to think about your choices. Another sale will come along shortly so try not to pressure yourself to decide quickly. Bookmark any artist you love if you’re using their collection just in case. Buy what you need for your project, since it’s eco-friendly print to order, patterns you love today will still be there later. No FOMO here!
Quilt Like You Mean It
Modern quilting is about fun and fearless choices and Spoonflower is full of them! With some planning, editing, and sale stalking, you can create the quilt of your dreams without the credit card nightmares!
Happy quilting…go make something amazing! 💕
SuperFox Studio 