Fat Quarter Stars Quilt Sew Along: Week 1 – Pick Fabric
Welcome, Quiltketeers, to a fabulous sew along after a long hiatus. I'm excited to jump back in the sew-along saddle — it's been a year and a half since we last sewed together! I led the Planetarium sew along right before having my third child, and it's been a whirlwind ever since. Fat Quarter Stars is the perfect introduction to a Suzy Quilts sew along because it's wonderfully straightforward and easy enough for a beginner. You probably don't even need me. 😉
For my newbies, you're probably wondering what a "sew along" even is. So here are some facts:
Fat Quarter Stars Sew Along Facts
- You still need the pattern. I will dive into the process with lots of detail (probably more than you want), but I won't cover the exact cutting measurements. You will need the PDF pattern for that. Get the Fat Quarter Stars pattern here.
- Four weeks long. Each Friday for four weeks, I will publish a new blog post with the week's assignment. If that feels too fast, work at your own pace. The sew along blog posts, including the IG live videos, will remain publicly available and easily found in the Sew Along tab.
- No sign-up. You do not need to sign up for these sew alongs. You simply sew along with us!
- Sewing questions. You've got questions, we've got answers! The best place to ask your technical sewing questions is in the Suzy Quilts Patterns Facebook group. The main purpose of sew alongs is to answer questions that pop up during the quilt-making process, so don't ever worry about asking a "stupid" question. They don't exist!
- 25% off longarm quilting. Jenn B Quilts, Thai Charm Quilting & More, and Trace Creek Quilting are offering 25% off edge-to-edge longarm quilting for Fat Quarter Star sew along participants for quilts sent before November 24, 2025. Check with each of them for specific details and restrictions.
How to Participate in This Sew Along
- Read the weekly blog posts. Each week will offer lots of helpful tips. I'm telling you now, these will feel hefty because we've got a lot of first-timers sewing with us. If you've been doing this a while, skim. If you're brand new, read these in chunks. Anytime you start to think, "Uh oh. I bit off more than I can chew." Just take a break or write a comment in the Suzy Quilts Patterns Facebook group saying something like, "I'm new and feeling overwhelmed! Any encouragement or tips?" Trust me — you will get A LOT. haha 😉
- Join the Facebook group. This group is invaluable during these sew alongs. I encourage you to post often! I loooove hanging out in the Suzy Quilts Patterns FB group because the members are positive, uplifting, helpful, and keep me excited to learn new things. This group will remain a forum for all SQ patterns, but during the Fat Quarter Stars sew along it will be the best place for questions about the pattern.
- Sign up for our newsletter. Every Saturday, you will get an email with a link to the week's sew along post. If you're not already signed up for the SQ newsletter, sign up here!
- Watch my IG live video events. These will be every Tuesday at 7:30 pm Central for the duration of the sew along.
- Surf #FatQuarterStarsQuiltSA on Instagram to see what others are making and use the hashtag yourself when posting pics!
- Subscribe to the Suzy Quilts YouTube channel for lots of helpful videos!
Fat Quarter Stars Sew Along Schedule
- Week 1: Pick fabric and gather supplies
- Week 2: Cut fabric and sew HSTs
- Week 3: Sew quilt blocks
- Week 4: Assemble quilt top and discuss finishing techniques and options (a.k.a. how to quilt and bind it)
Fat Quarter Stars Quilt Supplies
Fat Quarter Stars is a basic quilt pattern that is made from classic quilt units and only requires basic quilting supplies. I will first list what you absolutely need, and then list optional tools that can be helpful.
If you are new to quilting, this post has more details: Must-Have Quilting Tools: Secrets to the Best Sewing Toolbox
Essential Supplies
- Fat Quarter Stars quilt pattern
- Fabric as seen in the chart below (keep reading more fabric details)
- Basic Sewing Machine
- NEW Universal sewing machine needle in your machine (get in the habit of putting a new needle in your machine at least every time you start a quilt OR every 3 bobbins.)
- 50wt Thread (cotton or poly, both work)
- Straight Pins
- 24" x 36" Self-Healing Cutting Mat
- Rotary Cutter
- 6" x 24" Ruler
- Seam Ripper
- Iron, Spray Bottle, Ironing Board
Optional Supplies
- Starch + Spray Bottle (I water my starch down to make it last longer, and it still works great)
- Small Square Ruler OR Clearly Slotted Trimmer (HSTs are trimmed to 4.5", so a square ruler that size or larger
- Rotating Cutting Mat
- Tailor's Clapper
If You Are New to Quilting...
I have more resources for you that are helpful and quick to read:
Trending patterns!
What is a Fat Quarter?
A fat quarter (sometimes shortened to FQ) is a pre-cut of fabric measuring approximately 18" x 21". Quilting cotton is usually 42" wide from selvage to selvage. A yard is 36" long, so if you were to cut a quarter of a yard, you would have a 9" x 42" piece of fabric, which is quite long and narrow.
Lots of quilt patterns need cuts wider than 9". So, instead of cutting the yard four times from selvage to selvage, cut it once horizontally and once vertically, creating four “fat” quarters instead of four “narrow” quarters.
What kind of fabric should I use?
Traditionally, quilters used many different fabrics in their quilts — mostly from castoff clothing. Around the 1970s, quilting had a resurgence, and with that came the production of lightweight 100% cotton, now lovingly known as quilting cotton. Yay!
Quilting cotton is ideal for quilting because it is light enough not to create bulky seams (and we create a lot of those), but also stable enough to give structure to our cutting and sewing when making quilt blocks.
Other natural fibers can work, including 100% linen, linen/cotton blends, flannel, and (one of my favorites) yarn-dyed woven* fabric. These are trickier to use when making a quilt, so practice first with quilting cotton.
*What is the difference between yarn-dyed woven fabric and quilting cotton? To make yarn-dyed fabric, first the yarn, or threads, are dyed and then they are woven together — either in different woven patterns, or even with different textures of thread (ie, my slubs in the WildFlower Wovens collection). Quilting cotton is woven from bleached white thread and then dyed.
Where can I buy quilting cotton?
If you don't have a quilting store in your area, or if you aren't keen on the fabric in your local quilting store, there are lots of wonderful shops online. The Suzy Quilts Shop is a good place to start if you are looking for kits, bundles, or backing fabric for a Suzy Quilts pattern.
Here are a couple of blog posts that list more fabric stores:
Let's Pick Fabric!!
Don't be scared. I got you! One of the great things about Fat Quarter Stars is that it's pretty easy to pull fabric for this pattern. To make the throw size you need 8 FQs and some background fabric. I'm lucky enough to have a fun little stash of fabric to pull from, so that's where I headed.
While you are doing this, keep two things in your head:
- There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's. And there's no wrong way to pick fabric for a quilt. I'm going to show you lots of fabric combinations. There are endless ways to put fabric together. There's no wrong way.
- It's OK if it takes you a long time. It takes me a long time, too. That doesn't mean you're doing it wrong or you're bad at it. It's OK for things to take time. That's why I dedicated an entire week to just picking fabric.
Picking Fabric Two-Part Blog Series
Tip #1: Contrast is key.
My best tip for you this week is to focus on contrast between your FQs and your background fabric. If you have a dark background, go light or bright with your FQs. If you have a light background, you can basically do anything. haha 😉
Now I'm going to show you some examples so you can get the hang of this. Let's go on a fabric picking journey together...
First I pulled out a beautiful muted yarn-dyed bundle. These fabrics are light, so I laid them on top of myWildflower Wovens Rainstorm.
Next, I narrowed it down to 8 FQs that provide the most contrast to the background fabric. Pretty!
I've paired them up to get a better visual of how they would look as a Fat Quarter Stars quilt. So lovely. I could stop here or...
substitute some of the solid FQs for prints. Do we like this better or worse?
Let's push this a little bit further and change out the rest of the fabrics for brighter colors. We've now changed the tone of the quilt and heightened the contrast.
Now that I've gone brighter with the FQs, I wonder if they would look good on a lighter background. This is Wildflower Wovens Bluebell.
I could go even brighter with the FQs now that I have a lighter background. What if I pulled the bright orange/red tones out...
Oh dear, that Wildflower Woven Cardinal is sticking out too much! I'm going to balance it with this darker, yarn-dyed woven that pulls out the blue-green tones. Beautiful!
Tip #2: Start with one fabric you love.
If you don't have a premade FQ bundle, start with one fabric you love and have that be the foundation. Sometimes we call this your hero fabric. This can be a solid fabric of the perfect shade or a print you've been saving for years.
From there, walk up or down the rainbow. Here is a group of my fabric that I have arranged in rainbow color order.
An easy selection would be to pull 8 FQs that are next to each other. Below is a pretty grouping of blue to green fabrics. Because the navy fabrics are so dark, this group would look best with a light background. Light doesn't necessarily mean white/cream. Or in this case, Wildflower Wovens Cloud.
Signature PURE Solid Ginger, Wildflower Wovens Honeysuckle, or Wildflower Wovens Golden Hour would all look great. The key is contrast. See fabrics below.
With the above FQ bundle, I pulled green to blue; however, I could walk it in the other direction and pull green to yellow.
But what if you want more contrast than that? Easy peasy! Grab your hero fabric, then some complementary fabric to add contrast. I'm including some color wheels I made for another blog series on picking fabric, but don't get confused by these. All you need to think about is what pops next to your hero fabric.
If your hero fabric is purple, like mine, then yellow would pop. Steps between yellow and purple would include reds and oranges.
Here's another example with a beautiful navy floral hero fabric. From there I paired it with some complimentary blues, then pulled a contrasting orange fabric — Boho Birds in Snapdragon from my Duval collection. I then added some various tones of that shade to round out the look.
What version do you like the best?
Here is a fabric group based on cozy campfire vibes. Widlflower Wovens Moonlight is the background.
And this pull goes in an opposite direction to beautiful pinky, cloud-like tones of an early sunset. The background fabric is Wildflower Wovens Wild Rose.
You might recognize this next fabric pull because it then became...
I went through a few different variations before landing on the version I made.
More contrast? Less contrast? There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's!
Sometimes with quilt patterns it's easier to pick fabric if you see a finished quilt rather than a bundle of fabric. Here are some digital mockups of Fat Quarter Stars.
This next one has bright confetti vibes. Why does it work? Because the highly saturated colors bring contrast.
This next one stays soft and monochromatic.
The following three use my Signature PURE Solids with different background colors — light, medium, and dark. Each one offers a different level of contrast. Which do you prefer?
The FQ colors are: Snapdragon, Honeymoon, Queen Bee, Matcha, Haze, Poppy, Pistachio, and Hemlock. The background colors are Pearl, Cerulean, and Truffle.
Tip #3: Use a viewfinder or a clear ruler.
Are you worried your printed fabric will look weird once it's cut up? The sections of this quilt finish around 2" and 4". Use some paper to cut a viewfinder or use a clear ruler on top of your fabric to make sure you still like it once it's cut up.
I personally like to maintain at least a 50/50 ratio of solid to printed fabric. I think it helps the quilt pattern shine, and you don't have to worry about the finished quilt looking too busy. Because there is background fabric in this pattern, you could choose a solid background, and that would allow printed FQs to shine.
The quilt below used solid FQs and subtle black and white prints as the background. I love it! Find the kit here.
You'll notice that the quilt above uses a scrappy background. For tips on how to do that, then out the blog post called, Fat Quarter Stars Quilt Pattern.
Tip #4: Prep your fabric.
Once you have picked your fabric, go ahead and iron it so that you're ready for next week. If you have starch, NOW is the time to use it. Read this full tutorial or watch the video below.
Don't Pre-wash Precuts
I don't recommend pre-washing precut fabric because you can lose too much of it to fraying and shrinkage. Quilt patterns that are written for precuts assume that you have that exact amount of fabric. If you lose a couple inches on your FQ because of fraying from your washer and dryer, you may not have enough fabric. We don't want that to happen to you.
So yes, washing and drying fabric is a wonderful way to eliminate creases from store-bought folded fabric. Unfortunately, you just can't do that with fabrics smaller than a 1/2 yd.
Question: Can I mix pre-washed and unwashed fabrics in the same quilt?
Usually, yes, you can. If you are quilting with all of the same substrate (like cotton), and mixing those pieces of washed and unwashed fabric in the quilt top, it will shrink relatively the same throughout the quilt without causing any weird warping.
If you are mixing unwashed linen (or another substrate that shrinks and frays a lot) with pre-washed cotton, prepare for your quilt to look very crinkled after it's been laundered. For more info on sewing with other substrates, check out our Fabric 101 tab.
Fabric Shop Bundle Examples
Global Fiber Textiles & Notions
Instagram: @global_fiber
Olive & Elle Quilt Co.
Instagram: @oliveandellequiltco
Floyd the Fox Quilt and Sew
Instagram: @floyd.thefox
**Suzy Note: Because this bundle has a wide range of fabric from dark navy to light cream, you would do best with a background fabric that offers some contrast to all of the fabrics. I suggest a light beige/khaki like Signature PURE Solid in Ginger or Wildflower Wovens in Honeysuckle. Pictured below.
Blue Ridge Quilt Co
Instagram: @blueridgequiltco
Peony Pedal Quilts
Instagram: @peonypedalquilts
Piper Autumn Fabrics
Instagram: @piperautumnfabrics
Happy Little Quilt Shop
Instagram: @happylittlequiltshop
Going Coastal Fabrics
Instagram: @goingcoastalfabrics
Instagram: @harborfabriccompany
Callipe Quilts
Instagram: @calliope.quilts
Morgan Kelly Quilts
Instagram: @morgankellyquilts
Fabricworm
Instagram: @fabricworm
Summer Squeeze Bundle and Prism Bundle
Chicory & Thread
Instagram: @chicoryandthread
Scribbly Gum Quilt Co
Instagram: @scribblygumquiltco
