Are Quilt Kits Right for You? Ask These Questions

Quilt kits can be a lot like rainy days—either you love that quiet opportunity to take it easy, or you hate that hemmed in feeling.

Rarely is there a middle ground. If you're the creative sort, you might find working from a kit to be a limiting experience.

After all, with a quilt kits there’s no opportunity to choose your own fabrics or to arrange the patches in your own design. Then again, if you're looking for a fast fix—a quilt top that's going to go together quick and easy with minimal sweat and tears on your part—then quilt kits could be just the thing. The trick is in knowing what kind of quilter you are.

If you're considering purchasing your first kit, but you're still on the fence regarding the pros and cons, ask yourself these four revealing questions.

1. Do I already own an abundance of fabrics?

If you're anything at all like your mother, your grandmother or your crafty Aunt Kay, the answer to this question is probably a deafening 'yes.' Quilters who've been in the game for a while tend to build up backlogs of gorgeous fabrics. Clearance sales, fat-quarter bargain bins and even those late-summer estate sales are all perfect opportunities to pick up material for a song.

If you have plenty, or even too much, then a quilt kit that comes complete with all the pieces pre-cut could just be a waste of money. If you've taken the time—and spent the cash—to collect a nice assortment of fabrics, it only makes sense to use them up.

2. Am I pressed for time?

If you're short on the minutes and hours, but want your next project to look like you spent all the time in the world choosing a design and picking out fabrics, quilt kits will get you there.

Without having to do all the tedious cutting of squares, triangles, sashing and borders, you can trim your piecing time in half. Your finished quilt top will still look handmade, and only you will be any the wiser.

3. Will I enjoy putting together someone else's creation?

This is a tricky question for any die-hard quilter, and one that most tend to answer in the negative. But if you think about it, nearly every quilt patch was initially the brain child of a woman who lived long ago. Every time you piece a Log Cabin or an Attic Window, you're building on the ideas of someone else's great-great grandmother.

So if you’re asking yourself “What's the harm in taking things a step farther?”, then you're going to love the ease and convenience of working from a kit.

If that thought horrifies you and keeps you awake at night, however, you might want to avoid quilt kits the next time you go shopping.

4. Do I hate cutting fabrics into the necessary shapes and sizes?

How do you feel about the cutting chores that come with quilting? Are you the quilter who owns the largest self-healing board on the market and an impressive array of rotary blades and cutters? If so, you've probably narrowed the cutting chores down to an art. Possibly, you even strip-piece your quilts - sewing bits and pieces together before pressing and cutting them back apart.

But if you're still that quilter who meticulously cuts out each square and triangle with your coveted sewing scissors, you should probably give quilt kits a try. No cutting means less time getting to the main attraction.

If you are looking for a quilt kit, Runaway Quilting has everything you need

Regardless of which type of quilter you turn out to be, it's worth giving quilt kits a go. For the time and money they can save you, they're well worth the small concession you'll make in creativity, and the kits themselves are gorgeous.

Shop our quilt kits here.