🧴 Backing & Binding Calculator
Enter your quilt top size — get backing yardage, piecing layout, batting size, and binding strips instantly. Free, works at the cutting table.
How to Start Quilting
The complete beginner's map: the four stages of every quilt, the honest minimum tool list, and the one seam-allowance rule that runs everything.
Your First Quilt, Step by Step
A complete nine-patch throw tutorial — cutting, piecing, the quilt sandwich, straight-line quilting, and binding. Nothing assumed.
Essential Tools (and What to Skip)
The five tools worth buying first, the nice-to-haves that can wait, and the popular gadgets a beginner should never buy.
What Is a Fat Quarter?
Exact dimensions, the whole pre-cut family compared (jelly rolls, charm packs, layer cakes), and when pre-cuts save money versus cost you.
Choosing Quilting Fabric
Judge quality by hand with three simple tests, build a coordinated palette from one print, and know how much yardage is enough.
Washing & Caring for Quilts
Machine versus hand washing, why the dryer is the enemy, vintage quilt first aid, and the storage rule (never plastic) that prevents silent damage.
Quilt Size Guide
Standard dimensions from baby to king with exact numbers, the three measurements that matter, and pre-cut math for every size.
12 Scrap Fabric Projects
A working system for the scrap bin: four sort-bins and twelve genuinely useful projects, from log cabin blocks to crumb-quilt confetti art.
Our Story
About Mabel & Ethel's, the decade of quilt-shop wisdom behind this site, and how our guides are written.