I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long: Fabric Options
We've been getting some questions on fabric choices for I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long, so I thought it would help to see a variety of options all in one place. If you aren't familiar with the quilt along, check out my introduction post. I also have a page just for this quilt along that has all of the links you could possibly want.
So, back to fabric choices. You may have noticed that we weren't super specific about what you would need. That's because everyone's needs will be different based on the feel they are going for! So to help you out, I've teamed up with 5 of the other hosts to show you the fabric choices we made and discuss our thought processes.
I'll start with myself. I chose four solids that I think go well together. These will be the backgrounds of my blocks. Since the quilt will have 12 blocks that each finish at 12", one yard of each of these fabrics is more than enough.
From there, I chose a wide variety of solids. I may not actually use all of them, but I like having the options as I approach each block. I knew I needed several reds and greens - it is a Christmas quilt, after all! Since I want to keep a realistic feel in each block, I made sure to have some bits and pieces of white, black, golden yellow, brown, and orange. I tried to fill in around that with some other bright colors to keep it happy.
Next up is April Adams of JANDA Bend Quilts. I love the cheerful Christmas prints she chose! She says, "I have chosen to select focus fabrics from Purely Christmas by the Henry Glass Company and supplement from my stash. By starting with a coordinated group of fabrics, I can select compatible fabrics from my stash with more confidence. I can already see that I will need more green fabrics, but I like the bright feel of Purely Christmas and will want to maintain that."
Becca Fenstermaker of Pretty Piney has chosen a lovely modern pallet. I like the use of navy to give the quilt a unique feel. She says, "I chose six fabrics from my stash that I have at least a yard of, and I’ll supplement with fat quarters or scraps of other fabrics as needed."
Laura Piland of Slice of Pi Quilts opted for a more saturated selection of solids. She says, "I'm using Moda Bella White 98 (because I always have a bolt on hand!), Kona Black, Kona Breakers, Kona Lipstick, and Kona Cactus. I have a bit of Kona Chocolate and a metallic silver that I'll try and throw into a couple blocks too." To be on the safe side, she picked up a yard of each of her main colors (red, green, turquoise, black, and white).
Next is Jennifer Fulton of Inquiring Quilter. She's using a brand new fabric line! She says, "I’m going to make my quilt with these lovely fabrics, from the Shiny Objects with Holiday Twinkle collection by flaurie & finch for RJR Fabrics. I’m going to mix up my block backgrounds a bit—some white, some red, some green so I'm not terribly worried about amounts but I estimate I’ll need about 1 to 1-1/2 yards total for my backgrounds."
Last, but most certainly not least, is Sherry Shish of Powered by Quilting. She's going for a primarily grunge quilt. The fabrics in front are scraps for accents. I've been loving the grunge look lately, so I'm excited to see her quilt! She's still looking for a little bit of brown to complete her pallet.
I hope this roundup has been helpful! Remember, these fabric pulls were all made by hosts of the quilt along. That means we were able to see all of the blocks before we selected our fabrics. The variety of styles we chose should show you that you can get away with just about anything. Just pick some focus fabrics that speak to you, and pull in coordinating scraps as needed.
I can't wait to see what you come up with! You can share your choices on Instagram with #iwishyouamerryqal or in the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Facebook group.
One thing to keep in mind is that we were just focused on the blocks with our fabric pulls. I think it's easiest to make all of the blocks first, then decide how you want to set them. That way you can tell what will best complement your blocks. But if you want to get everything now, a traditional layout will require 1 yard of fabric for sashing, 1 yard for the border, and 1/2 yard for the binding.