What to do
 

I purchased cheater quilt fabric without knowing what it was :o. Now that I have it I don't know what to do with it. I know I can count on this board for help and suggestions. Thank you

I had never heard of cheater quilt fabric until you posted here. I looked it up and found out that it's fabric with quilting patterns/blocks/etc. already printed on the fabric to make it "look" like it's been pieced. Now that I think back, I've seen this used on bed quilts in stores like Walmart, Target, etc. Maybe you could make pillow cases out of it. How much did you buy? How about some whole cloth charity quilts? You will still sandwich it together & quilt & bind it. I think it would be nice for charity quilts.

Without knowing what it is (looks like) and how much it is hard to recommend anything. If you want to practice FMQ that is a good fabric to practice. If you don't want to keep it around, I agree with Osewme - make it up and donate it to a charity.

I have bought cheater fabric before. I layered it and made a quilt just as if I had pieced it myself. Nothing wrong doing that.

You can use it to practice quilting. A lot of the ones I've seen were turned into child-size quilts and turned into community service for donation.

long ago i had one and made it the center of a full size quilt. added borders. maybe corner blocks. can't remember. but it turned out well. no photo, sorry.

I got one about 25 yrs ago. I did a lot of hand quilting on it. i gave it to my brother. when I got to his apt, about 5 yrs later, it was the dogs quilt all torn up. He said they loved it to death. also, he kept the backing side up! go figure. No more quilts for him, ever! I just too the blocks and hand quilted each one, then put some sashes between. have fun with it.

I pay to have my quilts quilted, would I just ask for an all over pattern?

I bought a cheater top for practice on the longarm. It was so large I wound up cutting it into 3 separate pieces - after it was quilted.

Some people use them for backs. So they have reversible quilts.

Cheater quilt prints make wonderful backings. Often they are extra wide which is perfect.

I used to like getting cheater quilt fabric to use as tablecloths in my farm kitchen!

Have seen them hand quilted .... so well done, that you really had to look close to discover it was not an applique quilt.

Agree with others ... a perfect way to practice FMQing without doing all the piecework. Many sewing machine dealers, sandwich them up for customers taking test drives with their machines.

For a number of years I hand quilted with a group of friends every Monday morning. Two members of our group did not machine piece, so when it was their turn to have a quilt quilted, we quilted a cheater cloth quilt. Though I am a dedicated piecer, I will have to admit that when we finished quilting, the quilt was quite lovely. Some patterns look more authentically pieced than others. I think much of it had to do with the colors. Also, sometimes the fabric seemed to be lesser quality. However, most of them were quite beautiful and worthy of quilting.

i was given a couple yards of cheater cloth several years ago. i layered & quilted it by "stitching in the ditch" as if it were a pieced quilt top. gifted it to my late mil & she loved it! it was very pretty & she enjoyed it over her knees while she watched bowling on tv :))

I bought one when I was first started to learn how to hand quilt because it was easier to quilt than a pieced one. It was a wall hanging in Amish colors. Turned out pretty good. I think I have it some where...need to find it.

Exactly! If you have enough, make a quilt!

I bought a piece that had cute baby prints. I cut it up and pieced it with some fabric from my stash. It made a really cute baby quilt.

Yes I have had a few of them in the past. Really good for practice but also they make a nice quick beautiful quilt if you need something fast.

I hate when this happens. Gave one to a relative as baby shower gift, ended up in a whelping bed. When my little niece saw a photo of the quilt I made for her before she was born, she recognized it as being in the whelping bed. She brought it to her mother's and gma's attention. She asked why something made for her was given to the dogs. I believe that little tiny human has more respect in her pinky finger tip than others among her family and friends. Her little heart was broken because they through out her first ever quilt especially for her.

Wow! That is a lovely cheater quilt top. Nothing like that in my area.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]559338[/ATTACH] I have used panels for years, love that I can add a few borders, cornerstones, etc. and have a wall hanging or baby quilt quickly. Mostly I donate, but have gifted many. I just did the baby quilt with "blocks" at a retreat and it was fast and easy. There are purists in every craft, I am not one. A quilt is a quilt and done is good.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]559340[/ATTACH] This is a Christmas panel I added embroidered corner stones and pre-printed stripes for borders.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]559342[/ATTACH] this is a panel that I split and added sashing to achieve a specific "look"

[ATTACH=CONFIG]559343[/ATTACH] this is a pre-printed panel that I cut apart and did some pieced squares to set them apart

That's a really pretty one!

Dunster, you made that cheater cloth look really rich. You can't even tell is was a cheater cloth.

Personally, the cheater cloth/s that I have used in the past, seem not to hold up as well as regular fabric. I'm not sure why, but the color usually fades faster and one that I added my own borders to, the border fabric held up well but the cheater fabric started to shred. Maybe it was just my luck, I don't know.

In any case, I would make it up, with as little fuss as possible and then practice my free motion quilting on it and then give it away to a charity. With my experience, I figure no use putting a lot of time and money into it if it is not going to hold up very well.

I made a pillowcase with cheater fabric for my DD and she begged for a quilt from the fabric, so I made her a king quilt and she loved it. Still does even though I've made her so many quilts.

I prefer to call the fabric a "convenience quilt"! I gave used them for practice quilting and one came out so nice that my stepmom literally took it away from me because she loved it so much.