Bright, Square, and Generously Sized: A Guide to the Sweet & Spiffy Boxed Quilt Kit
A boxed quilt kit promises two things: the fabrics already work together, and you can start sewing instead of spending weeks hunting for coordinating yardage. The Sweet & Spiffy Boxed Quilt Kit with On The Bright Side from Moda delivers on both counts — a cheerful, color-rich collection, a named designer pattern, and enough fabric for a large square quilt, all packed in a keepsake-style box from Moda. Here is what to know before you open it.
What This Kit Makes
The finished quilt measures 72½ inches by 72½ inches — a true square, and a generous one. That size is big enough to be genuinely useful: draped over a sofa, folded at the foot of a bed, or spread out as a statement piece where its bright color can do the decorating. Square quilts have a particular charm. They read as modern and graphic, they rotate without a "wrong" direction, and they display well folded in quarters or hung on a wall.
The fabric line is On The Bright Side by Me and My Sister Designs for Moda Fabrics. As the name suggests, this is a vibrant, colorful collection — the kind of palette that lifts a room and makes the piecing feel joyful rather than dutiful. Because every fabric in the top comes from the same collection, the color and scale relationships are already resolved for you. That coordination is the main reason to buy a boxed kit instead of pulling bolts one by one: the designer has done the mixing, and your job is the sewing.
What's Included — and What Isn't
The kit includes everything you need to make the quilt top as pictured: all of the On The Bright Side fabric needed for the top, totaling 8.75 yards, plus binding fabric (Moda 22467-11), plus the Sweet & Spiffy Quilt Pattern by Wendy Sheppard, all presented in a cute box from Moda. Having the binding fabric included matters more than it sounds — binding is the frame of the finished quilt, and a matched binding keeps the look exactly as the designer intended.
One thing is deliberately not in the box: backing. You will need to purchase backing separately, so budget for that before you start, and check the pattern for the exact amount and any batting requirements. Choosing your own backing is actually a small creative opportunity — a quiet solid will calm the bright top, while a print from the same collection will carry the theme through to the reverse side.
Skill Level and Time
This kit is pitched for seasoned quilters and for beginners with a taste for high-quality materials, and the detailed, user-friendly instructions are what make that range possible. The skills involved are the fundamentals of patchwork — accurate cutting, consistent seams, and careful pressing — applied at a satisfying scale. If you are newer, treat the size as your teacher: by the time you have pieced a 72½-inch top, your quarter-inch seam will be second nature.
Plan on several sewing sessions rather than a single weekend sprint. A top built from 8.75 yards of fabric involves real cutting time up front, then steady block or strip construction, assembly, and finally quilting and binding a large square. Working in stages — cut everything, then piece, then assemble — keeps a project this size feeling manageable.
Tips for Success
Sort and label before you cut. With a colorful multi-fabric collection, lay every piece out, match it against the pattern's fabric key, and label each cut piece as you go. Ten minutes of organization prevents the classic mid-project mix-up between two similar prints.
Press as you piece, and check your squareness early. A square quilt shows drifting seams quickly, so measure units as they come together rather than discovering a problem at final assembly. Keep a consistent scant quarter-inch seam throughout, especially since different fabrics in the line may handle slightly differently.
Plan the finish before you piece the last seam. Order your backing early so the top doesn't stall, think about how you will quilt a 72½-inch square on your machine — simple straight-line or diagonal quilting suits a bright, busy top well — and save the included binding fabric somewhere safe so it doesn't wander into another project.
Shop the Sweet & Spiffy Boxed Quilt Kit with On The Bright Side from Moda at Linda's Electric Quilters.
