Quilt Fabric

Quilting Cotton and Everything Around It, Cut to Order in Louisville

Several thousand bolts, from Moda, Northcott, Riley Blake, Benartex, Andover, Studio E, Timeless Treasures and the rest, plus the wide backing, precuts, panels and binding that finish the job. All of it cut here rather than pulled from a warehouse shelf.

If you already know what you want, the filters and the A to Z fabric index beat scrolling. If you do not, start with the format you need.

Start With What the Fabric Has to Do

Quilting fabric yardage is the main event: standard 42 to 44 inch quilting cotton for tops, borders, sashing and everything pieced. Prints, solids, blenders, batiks and tonals, cut to the length you ask for.

Wide quilt backing runs 108 inches and up, wide enough to back a bed quilt in one piece with no center seam to match or square. It is sorted by color, so you can go straight to the family that suits your top.

Precuts are the shortcut: jelly rolls, layer cakes, charm packs, fat quarter and fat eighth bundles, already cut and already coordinated. A whole palette in one purchase, with none of the cutting.

Panels do the design work for you. One printed block, some borders, and you have a quilt top, which is why they are the reliable answer when a gift quilt is due sooner than you planned.

Binding is the last three yards of every quilt and the easiest thing to leave until it is inconvenient. Precut strips and the tools for making your own are together in one place.

Cuddle and minky is the softest thing we sell, and it makes a back that people fight over. Be warned that it sheds on a longarm frame and it slides while you sew, so it asks a little more of you than cotton does.

Fabric by the bolt is for when half a yard is nowhere near enough: a full bolt at a bolt price, for a guild project, a shop, or a background you know you will use for years.

How Our Fabric Is Cut

Order from half a yard upward, in quarter yard steps, and it comes off the bolt as one continuous piece. Not two half yards, not a joined length. One cut, the size you asked for.

Every fabric page shows the yardage actually left on that bolt, updated live, so you are never guessing whether we can cover a whole quilt. And if you order more than we turn out to have, you choose in advance what happens: we send what we have and refund the difference, we cancel that item, or we contact you first. You decide before it becomes a problem rather than after.

Widths, and the Math They Force

Standard quilting cotton is 42 to 44 inches. That is fine for a quilt top, where everything is being cut into pieces anyway. It becomes a decision on the back, because no bed quilt is under 44 inches wide, so a standard-width backing has to be seamed down the middle and then squared up.

That is why 108 inch backing exists, and why most quilters switch to it as soon as they make a quilt bigger than a lap throw. Whatever you back it with, add about four inches on every side beyond the finished top, because a longarm needs something to grip.

Shop Quilt Fabric at Quilted Joy

Quilted Joy is a destination quilt shop and skill-building studio in Louisville, Kentucky, serving quilters in our shop and across the country.

Our Quilt Fairies do the thing a website cannot: look at two bolts in daylight and tell you honestly whether they work together. Send a photo of what you already have, say what it needs to sit beside, and we will narrow several thousand options down to two or three.

If you would rather have the choosing done for you, our quilt kits and backing kits arrive with the palette already worked out.

Frequently Asked Questions About Buying Quilt Fabric

How is fabric cut and sold at Quilted Joy?

By the yard, with a half yard minimum, in quarter yard increments. So half a yard, three quarters, one yard, one and a quarter, and upward from there.

Whatever length you order is cut from the bolt as a single continuous piece.

What happens if you do not have as much fabric as I ordered?

You tell us in advance what you would like us to do. On every fabric page there is a choice: send what we have and refund the difference, cancel that item, or contact you before we do anything.

It is the sort of thing that only matters once, and when it matters it matters a great deal, which is why we ask rather than guess.

How do I know how much of a fabric you have left?

Every fabric page shows the yardage remaining on that bolt. If it says 5.25 yards available, that is what is on the shelf right now.

How wide is quilting cotton?

Standard quilting cotton is 42 to 44 inches wide. Wide backing runs 108 inches, and some runs 118 or 120. Cuddle, flannel and specialty fabrics vary, and every product page lists its width.

How much fabric do I need for a quilt?

Follow your pattern, which gives yardage per fabric for the size you are making. Beyond that, two rules of thumb: a half yard covers binding for most throws and three quarters of a yard for a bed quilt, and a backing needs about four extra inches on every side beyond the finished top.

If you are resizing a quilt or substituting fabrics, ask a Quilt Fairy before you order rather than after.

Should I prewash quilting cotton?

It is a matter of preference for most fabrics, as long as you are consistent across the whole quilt. Prewash everything or prewash nothing, because mixing washed and unwashed fabric is what puckers a quilt after its first wash.

Two exceptions worth taking seriously: deep saturated reds, which can release dye, and flannel, which shrinks considerably more than standard cotton.

What makes quilt shop cotton different from craft store cotton?

Thread count and fiber length, mostly. Quilt shop cotton is woven more densely from longer staple fibers, so it holds a crisp quarter inch seam, frays less at the cut edge, and does not go limp after washing.

You feel it most on the pieces that have to be accurate. A quilt is hundreds of seams, and fabric that shifts under the needle compounds across every one of them.

Can I order more of the same fabric later?

Usually, while it is in stock, though dye lots vary slightly between production runs and popular fabrics sell through. If a quilt needs one fabric throughout, buy the full amount at once.

If you run short partway through a project, contact us. We can tell you what is left on the bolt and whether more is coming.

What is the difference between yardage, precuts and a bolt?

Yardage is cut to the length you choose. Precuts are already cut into standard shapes, strips, squares or fat quarters, and packaged as a coordinated set from one fabric line. A bolt is the whole roll, usually somewhere between ten and fifteen yards of a single fabric.

Most quilts use yardage. Precuts save cutting time and take the palette decision off your hands. Bolts are for when you know you want a great deal of one thing.

How do I find a particular fabric line or designer?

Every product page lists its fabric collection, designer, brand, width and material, and the A to Z fabric index lists every line we carry alphabetically. If you saw a fabric on Love of Quilting or in a magazine and only half remember the name, describe it to us and we will find it.

Can Quilted Joy help me choose fabric?

Yes, and it is the part of this we like best. Tell a Quilt Fairy what you are making, who it is for, and what you already have, and we will pull options and say plainly what works and what does not.