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How I Select Fabric for a Quilt

fuellingdesigns

May 25

2 min read

Assorted floral quilting fabric swatches around a pink-and-yellow star quilt block on concrete, with Marcus Fabrics text visible.

For Mother’s Day I bought some prints from the fabric line “Kathleen’s Story” by Chris Schulte of Green Light Quilts for Marcus Fabrics. I selected the large brown floral, medium green floral and the monotone cream floral. I also bought multi print strip set yardage in brown and yellow.

These fabrics form the foundation from which I select the rest of the fabrics. They guide the colors, style and scale that will be used in the final quilt.

I take one fabric at a time, pull my related color stacks from my stash and sort through each fabric pulling fabrics that fit within the color and style of “Kathleen’s Story”. Quilts need a variety of scale in their prints. Additional large prints with many colors need to complement the original florals. The neutrals and small scale prints hold everything together. They let the showier prints shine.

I work through each of the fabrics I bought from the foundation line. Once I have the first pull of fabrics I place all of the color stacks on my work table. Next, I line up the foundation fabrics and the second round of fabric selection starts. This time I am looking simultaneously at all of the fabrics for colors, style and scale. I want a smooth, cohesive and varied mix. Any fabrics that do not fit are pulled. I also pull my scrap bags out and select the little scraps that will blend in.

I love this part of making a quilt (actually, I love every stage). As I am sorting through the fabrics Ideas are formulating in the back of my mind. You can see I have far more fabric pulled than I will use. My first design decision is that there will be two quilts. One with the lighter green as it’s focus and one with the darker colors as its focus.

The green quilt is what I have started on. A medallion setting with a late 1700’s - early 1800’s look is what I am going for. I dove right in and made the central on point section. To continue with the quilt, I needed to do some math and designing to make sure everything fits together and I get the finished size and look I want. I am currently making half square triangles for the next border.

The light green fabric with the small paisley print will be the backing. The dark green with the yellow green stem and leaf print will be the backing on the darker tone quilt. Fabrics that are not used will go back into the stash for another project.