Your fabric choices are what make the quilt truly special. Bland fabric or clashing fabric can transform your beautiful work into something less appealing.
So, how do you choose your fabric?
Selecting fabrics for a new project has become one of the most crucial aspects of the quilting process, but it took time to reach the point where you felt comfortable and truly enjoyed it. However, many of you find a fabric you adore but don’t have a matching coordinating fabric. Or perhaps you’d like to be more creative.
Here are some tips for choosing the perfect fabric.
Start with a Designer Curated Fabric Collection
Start with a pre-curated fabric assortment when you’re just getting started or still lacking confidence. That’s what they’re for! Curated fabric collections from the manufacturers are a huge time saver because they offer a wide range of pre-coordinated colors and designs with plenty of built-in color and scale contrast.
Generally (but not always), you’ll find prints in different shapes (e.g., dots, stripes, florals) and scales (large, medium, and small), with colors chosen to complement one another. There’s no such thing as “breaking rules” or “being lazy” when utilizing a fabric collection. They’re an excellent approach to guarantee a coordinated color scheme with built-in contrast and scale of prints.
Mix a Fabric Collection from Your Stash or Quilt Shops
Using a bundle of prints from a single designer fabric collection is to create a color-coordinated quilt, but it can appear a little predictable. An alternative is to start with a fabric collection; maybe you only have a small stack from a single collection and add additional fabrics of your choice.
Quilting cotton usually features a printed selvage that runs along the fabric’s left vertical edge and displays the colors used in each print. This can be useful when matching other fabrics from your stash or at your local quilt shops. It is difficult to match precisely online, but an email to the shop owner might be helpful. You should also find that in a brick-and-mortar quilting shop, the staff is eager to assist in assembling a group of fabrics and may generate surprising suggestions.
Use a Specific Color Scheme or Theme
Using a specific color scheme or theme is another technique to simplify the process of selecting fabrics. Red and white quilts, blue and cream quilts, and Christmas or other holiday-themed quilts are just a few examples of approaching this. You can also make quilts using just one-color palette and a background. For example, use a variety of shades of blues in your quilt.
Pick Your Prints
Normally, you should blend at least six different materials. One large print in two colors, a small print in two colors, and two blenders. You can also alter the small print to a geometric design such as a stripe, dots, plaid, etc. Alternatively, use both for eight distinct prints. Select at least one light and one dark fabric.
Pay Attention to Scale
When picking printed fabrics, it’s vital to consider the overall scale or size of the design printed on your fabric. Some quilts are more effective with small prints that can read like a solid. These are great because they give your quilt a little flair.
Quilt designs with larger blocks can be an excellent method to draw attention to a larger print. Create a captivating quilt block by placing an intriguing element at its center and contrasting it with contrasting sashing.
One method you can figure out scale is measuring the pattern repeat in the fabric. This may help you in deciding how to use a piece of fabric.
