Our Top Tips for Making the Most of Fill-A-Yard

When is a yard more than a yard? When it’s made with Fill-A-Yard®! Spoonflower has revolutionized the way you replenish your fabric stash and today we’re sharing everything you need to know (hacks included!) about this helpful tool for getting just the amounts of fabric you need. 

Before we get started, it’s important to note that all Fill-A-Yard projects will require you to create a collection or work from an existing collection in the Marketplace. This collection can feature your own designs or designs from any independent artist in the Marketplace. Mix-and-match if you’d like. Did you know you can search a specific theme by collections, find your favorite Design Challenge winners featured in weekly collections through the Spoonflower account, or shop featured collections in the Spoonflower Magazine?

Pro tip: Easily find coordinating designs from one designer by shopping from the Featured In section on their design page.

For even more tips on searching designs in the Marketplace, don’t miss these five go-to tips from quilter Lorna Slessor.

Now that you know a little bit more about creating collections for Fill-A-Yard, it’s time to get filling!

Proof Your Designs on a Budget

If you want to proof your own designs or see how your favorite designs from the Marketplace will look together, choose our Fill-A-Yard Cheater Quilt Template, which gives you the best bang for your buck. Since these squares are 6 x 6”, you can sample up to 42 designs on our 1 Yard Cheater Quilt for as low as $18.50–that’s just 44¢ per design! Once you receive your cheater quilt you will have the ability to make all of your own sampled designs available for sale in your Spoonflower shop. 

Pro tip: You can mix and match your private designs with Marketplace designs when using any Fill-A-Yard template.

Seamlessly Mix and Match Colorways

Did you know the same design (in scale and orientation) in a different colorway will repeat seamlessly when used in a Fill-A-Yard project? For example, if we fill the 1 Yard Cheater Quilt template with the designs Luna Moth – Gold on Dark Teal and Luna Moth – Gold on Pink from littlearrowdesign’s  Luna Moth collection, the moths will repeat seamlessly across the cheater quilt template because they are the same design (same scale and orientation) even though they are different colorways. 

Pro tip: To fill a block on your template, first click on the design from your collection on the right side and then click on the block you want to fill.

Think Outside the (6″) Box 

One of our favorite Fill-A-Yard hacks is using either of the cheater quilt templates for projects other than a cheater quilt! If you only need a small amount of fabric but need a variety of designs, the 6” or 9″ blocks can be filled with the same design consecutively to create larger fabric swatches that aren’t traditionally offered on Spoonflower. If the original design is seamless, it will repeat seamlessly across each box. We recommend measuring your pattern pieces first to determine how you should fill your cheater quilt template.

When Spoonflower team member Meredith was making four fox plushies featured in the book Handmade Animals Dolls, she used the 1 Yard Cheater Quilt Template to order just the right amount of fabric she needed for each pattern piece by filling nine squares (3×3) with the same design. 

Would you believe us if we told you this Twisted Ribbons quilt from Suzy Quilts was made using the 2 Yard Cheater Quilt Template? See how Suzy did it here!

Swim is In

If you want to color-block a swimsuit, make it reversible or get two small bikinis out of one yard, try out the Fill-A-Yard split yard template. Create your collection, choose the horizontal split yard template and Sport Lycra as your fabric option, select the designs you want printed and then fill that yard!

Ready to try out Fill-A-Yard? Find more inspiration with these Fill-A-Yard projects.