A Quilter’s Alphabet: P for Partial Seams, Piecing and Precuts

Hi friends!

Today in the A Quilter’s Alphabet series, Tammy and I are up to the letter P!

I will be explaining the terms partial seam, piecing and precuts.

Partial Seam

A partial seam is the process, when sewing 2 pieces of fabric together, that you stitch the seam in parts. This helps to avoid a more complicated seam sometimes, like a Y seam!

Tammy and I recently covered how to do this in one of our Exploring Quilting Basics post- click here to read more.

Piecing

Piecing refers to sewing the pieces of a block, quilt or a garment together. This can be done by machine or by hand.

Precuts

Precuts are groups of fabric cut into a standard size. Many manufacturers create groups of smaller cuts of fabric for each line. Moda has coined names for their groups of precuts that have become the standard way to refer to them.

Here is a list of some common precuts:

Fat Eighths- 9″ x 21″

Fat Quarters – 18″ x 21″

Mini Charms or small squares –  2 ½” squares

Charms or Nickels – 5″ squares

Layer Cakes or Stacks – 10″ squares

Jelly Rolls or strip packs – 2 ½” x WOF strips

Precuts are a really fun way to collect fabric; because they are usually a curated group of fabrics or the fabrics are all from the same fabric line, they work great together.

Do you have a favorite precut? Mine is the Fat Quarter but I also love charm packs because they are a great way to get a group of different prints and they are less expensive than strip packs or a stack of larger squares!

For her part in the A Quilter’s Alphabet- the letter P, Tammy is chatting about the paper piecing, pressing and pressing to the dark. So click here to go to her post to read all about them!

Next week in our Exploring the Basics series, Tammy and I will be chatting about Improv Piecing. See you then!

happy quilting!

Kate