How to Quilt with a Literary Classic: Sewing with Emma Mrs. Weston Cotton
Some fabrics carry a story before you even cut into them. Emma Mrs. Weston, from the Emma collection by Riley Blake Designs, is one of those fabrics. It is a 100% cotton quilting fabric, 43/44 inches wide and sold by the yard — and it is part of Riley Blake Designs' collectible series honoring Jane Austen's six published works. This is an official licensed product, so the print is a genuine piece of that Austen-inspired collection, not a look-alike.
What This Fabric Is
Mrs. Weston — Anne Taylor as she was at the start of the novel — is Emma Woodhouse's former governess, close friend, and one of the steadiest voices in Emma. The fabric itself is a standard-width quilting cotton in a blue floral design. At 43/44 inches wide, it cuts, presses, and sews just like the other quilting cottons in your stash, so it mixes easily into projects you already know how to make.
Riley Blake Designs lists the Emma collection for quilting, apparel, and home decor, and that range is real. The same yardage that goes into a quilt block can also become a dress bodice, a pillow cover, or a set of table linens.
Best Uses for Emma Mrs. Weston
In quilts, a blue floral like this one is a versatile player. Use it as a featured print in larger pieces — setting squares, wide borders, or the big patches of a simple patchwork layout — where the floral design has room to show. It also works as a backing for a smaller quilt, a baby quilt, or a wall hanging, where the Austen connection becomes part of the gift's story.
For apparel, quilting cotton's crisp hand suits structured pieces: fit-and-flare dresses, skirts, button-front shirts, and children's clothing. For home decor, try throw pillow shams, curtain valances, table runners, and placemats — places where a blue floral reads as classic rather than costume-like. It is also a natural choice for bookish gifts: a quilted book sleeve, a tote for library trips, or a lap quilt for a reading chair, paired with a copy of Emma itself.
Cutting, Piecing, and Color Pairing
Start by pressing the fabric and squaring one end before you cut; standard-width cotton is easy to rotary-cut into the strips, squares, and rectangles most quilt patterns call for. Because this is a floral print, check the scale of your pieces before committing to a pattern: in small pieces the print will read as color and texture rather than as distinct flowers, so save this fabric for the larger cuts in the block and let smaller pieces come from blenders and solids.
Blue is one of the easiest colors to pair. Set Mrs. Weston alongside white and cream for a fresh, Regency-light palette, or deepen it with navy and other blue prints from the Emma collection for a tonal, coordinated quilt. Soft yellows and sage greens — colors Austen-era interiors loved — make friendly accents, while a touch of blush pink keeps the combination romantic without turning it sugary. When piecing, use a quarter-inch seam and press as your pattern directs; nothing about this fabric asks for special needles, thread, or techniques beyond good basic practice.
Care
Care is simple: machine wash cold and tumble dry low, following the instructions for this fabric. Washing cold and drying low helps cotton keep its color — worth doing for a blue print — and keeps shrinkage in check. If you plan to combine this fabric with others in a quilt, treat all of them the same way before cutting, whether that means pre-washing everything or nothing, so the finished quilt washes evenly.
Austen's novels have stayed in print for more than two hundred years because they reward revisiting. A fabric from the Emma collection brings a little of that staying power to your sewing table: a dependable quilting cotton, a classic blue floral, and a story worth stitching into your next project.
Shop the Emma Mrs. Weston 43"/44" Fabric Per Yard at Linda's Electric Quilters.
