From – Jan 9, 2010
How do I choose fabric for a quilt?
· Why are you doing this quilt – gift, learning, using up stash?
· What is the main theme – ocean, baby, holiday?
· Pick a main fabric to build around. A fabric that represents the main theme.
· Look at the pattern on the focal fabric and start pulling out colors and patterns from it.
A sophisticated, polished accent would be jarring and out of place with a more rustic focal fabric. Conversely, if you were doing a design from a Japanese garden fabric, even in exactly the same colors, it would look ridiculous to include “crayon” drawings.
Don’t pick up the most flagrant color in the focal fabric but instead feature it by not saturating the quilt in that color. If you choose a little used accent color from the focal fabric it will highlight and not overwhelm the main colors.
You will find the best combinations through experimenting. It is really a hit or miss activity. But, with a lot of practice your misses will be fewer and fewer. Playing with fabric selection is one of the most enjoyable parts of quilting.
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Karen Dennison
Learn, Grow and Share – And most of all – Create!
