Ask Penny Halgren

What is stack and whack quilting? It’s a fabric cutting technique that is exactly what it’s name implies.

Fabric is stacked and quilt pieces are cut (or, whacked). You might be surprised at the unusual look this technique can achieve in your quilting projects.

In one style, stack and whack can give quilts a dimensional, almost kaleidoscope like look, by repeating fabric patterns. To achieve the look, rectangles are cut from identical pieces of fabric. This means that you will have several rectangles of the repeating design cut from your fabric.

When you make your stack from these rectangles, you will be layering pieces of fabric with identical designs on them. When you stack, your patterns should line up.

When you cut your quilt block pieces from the stacks the first time, you might be a little confused about how these pieces will possibly go together to create a unique quilt. Follow through with your quilt block pattern anyway.

Once you get the first block finished, you will see the unique kaleidoscope effect…and you just might find yourself hooked on stack and whack quilting!

There’s no need to invest a lot of money into experimenting with the stack and whack technique because the supplies needed for this type of quilting are rather basic.

You will need a rotary cutter, a rotary cutting board (get the self healing board so previously cut indentation's won’t affect your cutting, and rotary rulers.

Cutting stack and whack block pieces with scissors would be difficult. Rotary cutting will give the cleanest lines for you to work with in your project.

In addition to having the right tools, fabric selection is another important aspect of stack and whack.

Before selecting your fabric, ask yourself what look you want to achieve with your quilt project. Do you want something bright? If so, choose fabric with bold colors and lots of contrast. If you would like a more subdued quilt, pick fabrics with prints that do not hold a deep contrast.

An important note to keep in mind when making stack and whack projects is that – as lovely as they are – hand printed fabrics do not perform well in this kind of quilt. Hand printed fabrics are gorgeous and unique. The stack and whack process thrives on repetition, not uniqueness. The craftsmanship of hand printed fabrics is not as precise as machine produced fabric prints.

Determining the amount of fabric you need for a stack and whack quilt is a little different that traditional quilting methods.

Since repetition in the fabric’s pattern is paramount, you will need to know the scale of the fabric’s repetition (how often it repeats). Finding this information sounds more difficult than it really is.

Simply take a look at the fabric’s selvedge. Look for an item in the pattern, then find it’s duplicate. Measure the distance from the first item to its identical second item, and that’s the repetition measurement for your fabric.

Please note that to get correct repetition measurement, you will need to measure from the same point on the items. For example, if you measure from a butterfly from the outside of its left wing to it’s repeated image, you must also measure to the outside of its left wing. If you measure too far in to the pattern, you will lose the effect of a true repeat.

Knowing these fabric selection and measuring tools up front will help you plan a great stack and whack quilt. It’s always fun to learn a new quilting technique.

Try your hand at stack and whack quilting. The process will teach you more about colors and patterns in fabrics and will also give new quilters additional practice in rotary cutting. No matter what your skill level, your stack and whack quilt is certain to be a design of which you will be very proud!