Want a quick quilt? What about a panel?

Sometimes we need a really quick quilt and just don't have the time to deal with lots of piecing. When that happens I sometimes turn to a panel. What's that I hear? You're saying "but they are always so wonky!" While that is true with some, thankfully not all seem to be printed at a 45 degree angle.

When you find that panel that fits the purpose, unwind the bolt and check to see how "off" it is printed. Will you be able to straighten out the bit of off-grain that seems to be part of every bolt? The only way to check this is to unwrap enough of the bolt to actually see the entire panel. Go ahead, if it's obviously "warped" give a little tug like we learned in 7th grade home ec years ago to see if it will straighten. Secondly, make sure that your cutter carefully cuts it so that you don't lose any parts--that means cutting each side of the folded width of grain seperately so he/she can actually see the printed pattern while cutting. Since you are the customer, don't hesitate to point this out if the cutter doesn't start this method.

Third step is to determine what size you want the finished quilt. Most panels are going to be limited to the width of fabric by about 1 to 1.5yds. While you will want to increase that size with borders, more than about 8-12" of borders on each side will increase the chance of the quilt being wonky. Be sure to square up the panel well before adding borders and make sure you square up each additional border. Most panels are best used as baby or lap quilts unless you want to center the panel and add patchwork blocks before borders (or cut the panel apart and add to the patchwork blocks).

Here is a customer quilt that needed to be pieced in an hurry and quilted quickly. We agreed that outlining the panel eagles and then treating each border (after stitch in ditch to stablize and emphasize each border) would be best. The blue and white were both FMQ and I used a border panto on the red border. The red border required taking the quilt off the frame and turning to get the sides quilted--that process can be a time consumer, but with a smaller quilt is very "doable"

So don't turn your back on panels--especially if you are in need of a quick quilt or one that specifically highlights a recipient's hobby. They do sometimes require a little extra prep--but go for it!