Sew Let's Quilt Along: Fabric Options
Are you getting excited for our next quilt along? I sure am! If you missed the introduction, check it out here. That post has all of the information that you need to quilt along with us.
Our first block comes out in just over a week (Tuesday, March 12), so that means it’s time to start choosing fabrics! But what if you don’t have any idea what to choose? Don’t worry - the Partners in Design are here for you. In this post, we’ll take a look at our hosts’ fabric choices. It may not help you narrow down your options, but it will certainly give you some inspiration.
Quilt Hosts
These four ladies are each planning to use their blocks in one large quilt. That means their fabrics need to coordinate well for all of the blocks.
Bobbi Bridgeman @ Snowy Days Quilting
That’s me! I’m sticking with my love of batiks, and I decided to go with my favorite cool colors. The mottled grey is Bali Watercolors 1895-597 December. It will be my background fabric. For the foreground, I’ll be using bright blue, green, and purple scraps. Since we only need little bits of each fabric in the blocks, this quilt is a perfect scrap buster. I always enjoy seeing how many different fabrics I can get into one quilt.
The picture gives you a good idea of the variety I’m going for. I decided to stick to a specific color palette rather than trying to make the colors be realistic for the items in the blocks. I will have enough variety in colors and values to make the blocks come out well without worrying about realism.
Becca Fenstermaker @ Pretty Piney Quilts
Becca pulled a collection of fabrics from her stash with a variety of colors and values. She chose both a dark background and a light background. Since she’s making a quilt, she wanted her block backgrounds to be uniform. She’s also planning to bring in scraps from her stash as needed.
Sherry Shish @ Powered by Quilting
Sherry always makes such lovely quilts from Moda Grunge. This time, she chose some of her favorite colors as the focus fabrics. She’s also planning to pull from her many Grunge scraps to round out the color palette.
April Adams @ JANDA Bend Quilts
April is using fabrics from the Salem Quilt Show collection by Meg Hawkey of Crabapple Hill Studio for Maywood Studio. She’s excited to end up with a fun and wild quilt!
Project Hosts
These five ladies will be using their blocks in small projects. Since they’re making multiple projects, it’s less important for all of their fabrics to coordinate. Instead, they can choose a variety of favorites and use them in different projects.
Sandy Maxfield @ SandyStar Designs
Sandy is planning to use some of her treasured Blueberry Park stash in each block. She will fill in with solids or blenders.
Abbie Danahy @ Sparkle On!
Abbie is using fabrics from First Blush by It’s Sew Emma for Windham Fabrics. She’s also pulling from her stash of Kona solids.
Jennifer Fulton @ Inquiring Quilter
Jennifer went looking through her fabrics and pulled out anything that spoke to her. She came up with several wonderful ideas!
Kathleen McCormick @ Kathleen McMusing
These are some of the fabrics that spoke to Kathleen as she dug through her stash. She’s hoping to work in all of the sewing related fabrics.
Karen Thurn @ Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats
Karen is looking to use her projects in her Arizona sewing room. With that in mind, she decided to include cacti in all of her blocks. She found a variety of cactus fabrics, and pulled in blenders to coordinate with them.
How Much Fabric Do I Need?
Keep in mind that everyone’s needs with vary depending on what they do with their blocks. There’s a huge variety in the fabrics that are needed for different quilt settings and small projects. With that said, I can give you a good idea of where to start for the blocks themselves.
Background - I recommend getting at least two yards of this for the blocks. If you’re planning on using it in your quilt setting or small projects, you will want some more.
Main Fabrics - I recommend going scrappy. Since we’ll only need little bits of fabric in each block, this is a great chance to use up some scraps. The more variety, the better!
If you prefer to select specific fabrics, I would get 1/2 yard each of 8 different fabrics. Once again, you may need more depending on what you do with your blocks.
Brown, Black, and Grey - If you would like to keep the blocks looking realistic, you’ll want a half yard each of brown, black, and grey. Of course, it’s also fine to leave those out if they don’t fit the color scheme you prefer. Your quilt (or projects) will still turn out well.
What Do You Think?
Is your mind swimming with ideas? Mine certainly is! I would love to hear your thoughts on the fabric choices. Do you have a favorite from what our hosts have shared? What are you thinking about for your own blocks? Leave me a comment and let me know!
Once you’ve chosen your own fabrics, we would love to see them. You can post a picture in the Partners in Design Facebook group, or on Instagram with the hashtag #SewLetsQAL. I can’t wait to see what you find!
