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Fun with Fabrics

Since I covered how I cut up my fabrics and store them in previous blog posts, I thought I would talk more about fabrics this week. What to look for when you are shopping for fabric, what to do with it once you are home from the quilt shop and other useful (I think!) information. Hopefully this post doesn’t seem too random, but sometimes that’s how my mind works… I’ll be working on something and it’ll inspire me to share tips! So here we go…

Picking Out Fabric

When you purchase a pattern, you can choose the fabric that you see on the pattern cover. Often a pattern is featured in a shop with a new line of fabric, so it’s all there for you to buy. But, what happens if you come across that pattern once the original fabric is gone? That’s what my tips are for! 

Tip #1: Choose fabric for the quilt based on the color instead of sticking to a particular line. If the pattern uses a particular fabric, but it’s no longer there, look for one that is the same shade of that color (or close to it) and with the same scale of print. Here’s an example:

Imagine that the orange print used in the quilt block on the left is no longer available in the quilt shop. The orange fabric on the right, would make a good substitution. The scale of the print is close in size and the shade of orange is close to the original also. Compare it to these other pieces of fabric:

These orange fabrics are a darker shade of orange than the one in the block and the prints are of a larger scale, so I probably wouldn’t choose these as a substitute. I’m not saying you can’t use one of these, you can. It will just change the look of your block a little more than the first fabric I suggested.

Tip #2: All your fabric choices do not have to be from the same line of fabric.  Of course there’s nothing wrong with making a quilt using the fabrics from the same line. If you are a beginner staying within one line is actually a good way to pick out fabric. But if you want to be adventurous, you can venture out and choose color prints from several different fabric lines while staying in the same genre (1800 reproductions, 30s fabrics, Batiks, etc) and still have a harmonious quilt. To match fabrics, consider using the color guide on the selvage on your favorite fabric for your project.

If your piece of fabric doesn’t have this on the selvage, look at the colors in the print itself and use that as a guide to find a match.

Tip #3: Always buy more fabric than stated on the pattern. If I am buying yardage from the bolt, I generally buy 1/8 to 1/4 yard more than I need to allow for squaring the fabric and possible cutting errors. It’s also a good idea to have extra if you are a fabric pre-washer. 

Tip #4: Venture out from the typical background to have some fun. If your quilt calls for 2 yards of a tan print for background of blocks, consider buying 4 half yards or 8 quarter yards of coordinating tans to make up that 2 yards. Then you can use different backgrounds with the variety of color print pairings for blocks to make a scrappy background. That’s what I did in my quilt, Seaside Cottage:

It will take a little math, but it’s worth it for the effect! Here’s the whole quilt:

As you can see from the whole quilt, there’s an added dimension with the scrappy backgrounds. You can also go in an entirely new direction by doing a dark background for a pattern that has a light one originally. I tried this out on my pattern, Bloomin’ Days:

If you are going to switch from a light to a dark background, be sure your color prints have enough contrast from the darker background to stand out.

Once You’re at Home

Once you are at home with your fabric, it’s time to decide if you will pre-wash it or not. There are pros and cons for pre-washing. I personally am not a pre-washer, but you can decide for yourself what you’d like to do.

Pre-washing Pros:
• All the fabrics that are going to shrink will shrink so the finished quilt pattern is not ruined by fabrics shrinking differently if you like to wash finished quilts.
• Certain fabrics might bleed, like purples and reds, and transfer to other parts of a quilt when the finished item is washed.
• Chemicals used in the processing of the fabric are removed in pre-washing. Some people are allergic to these chemicals so this is a benefit to them.

Pre-washing Cons:
• It takes time. The extra steps of washing and ironing adds time to the prep when getting ready to make a quilt.
• It washes out the sizing. Some quilters like this sizing which tends to make the fabric easier to cut. I like the “stiffer” fabric that, for me, seems to cut easier.
• Most of the quality fabrics today do not shrink much and the fabric dyes are much more stable to prevent bleeding. There’s also laundry products, like Shout® Color Catchers, that prevent color transfer.
• Fabric edges fray which can distort the fabric. This will require you to waste more fabric when squaring up.

Pre-washing is easier with yardage from the bolt, less chance of fraying. If you are wanting to pre-wash fat quarters or fat eighths, you can prevent fraying and unraveling by cutting a snip off the corners or cutting the edges with pinking shears.

Also, I recommend putting these pre-cuts in lingerie bags to help reduce the chances of fraying.

If you pre-wash, I recommend pressing those fabrics prior to folding for storing to cut down on the amount of pressing you will need to do when it’s time to use them.

So that’s all I have for this week. I hope you are inspired to go shopping for your next quilt and feel like you can be creative in picking out fabrics. Remember, there are no quilt police… there are no hard and fast rules for fabrics used in your quilt. If a piece of fabric “speaks” to you and plays well with the other fabrics you’ve chosen, that’s all that matters. We’re artists, right?

Leave a comment or ask questions below and I will enter you into a drawing for my quilt pattern, Seaside Cottage (as seen above). The drawing will be on Monday, May 8th. Good Luck! **We have a winner! Congrats, Marilyn!**

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

Fabric Color – Color Theory and Choosing Fabrics

The last few weeks, we talked about one block quilts and two (or more) block quilts and how the design of those blocks effects the look of the quilt. Now it’s time to talk about color. Choosing fabrics and color is often something that gives quilters nightmares when they are beginning a project. I’m here to help you get rid of those fears with some color theory and fabric choosing tips. Let’s go!

Color Theory  – Just a Bit!

Color: Before you shop for fabric, dig out this little contraption and let’s have a lesson:

You probably recognize the color wheel from grade school art class. We learned about the primary colors of red, yellow and blue. From those colors, all the other colors are created. That’s why they’re called “primary” colors.  

The first group of colors created by combining primary colors are called secondary colors. These are orange (from red and yellow), green (from blue and yellow) and violet (from blue and red).

The color wheel can help you with getting the right contrast in your quilt in addition to picking out fabric colors. Notice the closer that colors to each other are on the wheel, the less contrast between them. The most contrast is achieved with colors that are farther away from each other. This is where complimentary colors come in. A color that is opposite of another on the wheel provides the most contrast and is called complimentary. For example: red and green are across from each other so they are considered complimentary and there is high contrast between them.

Shade, Tone & Tint: Knowing the difference between shade, tone and tint and how that effects the contrast between your fabrics can go a long way in helping you choose fabrics.

  • Shade is taking the pure color, for instance blue, and adding black to it to make it darker, for a dark blue.
  • Tint is taking the pure blue and adding white to make it lighter, making a light blue.
  • Tone is adding grey to a pure color to make it less intense. Most colors around us in the world are tones of pure color.

Another way contrast can be achieved is by combining “warm” and “cool” colors or have blocks that alternate between warm and cool colors throughout a quilt.

Summing it up… if you want a quiet, muted quilt, choose colors close to each other on the wheel, with the same shades, tints or tones. If you want a high contrast quilt, choose colors far away from each other on the wheel, with different shades, tints or tones. Of course there are a lot of complete books on color theory and this is just a tiny snippet of information. If you are interested in a more in depth explanation, you can surely find some of these books at the library or online.

Using Color Theory in Choosing Fabrics

So here’s a real world example of some of what I talked about above.

One way contrast is achieved is by considering the shades and tints of the each color you choose. Tint is when white is added to a color to make it lighter and shade is when black is added to a color to make it darker. For example,

pink is a tint of red where maroon is a shade of red.

See the difference in these fabrics? They’re all the same base color, red, but when used in a quilt, they will each make it look a bit different.

Here’s another example. Pick out fabrics you would like to use in your quilt and stack them up like these fat quarters I used below:

There is not much contrast between these fabric because they are all close to the same shade within their color family. But now, in the photo below, I have switched out two of the fabrics for fabrics tinted lighter than the originals.

The above are all cool colors as well and close to each other on the color wheel. Look what happens when I add in some complimentary colors from the warm side:

Removing the brown and purple fabrics and adding the gold and red fabrics makes the stack of fabrics more vibrant.

Building a Colorful Quilt

So here’s a fun little experiment. Here’s how to build a colorful scrap quilt starting with the primary colors. Let’s say the quilt pattern you have takes a yard of each color fabric (not including the background) and has 12 blocks from each color. 

The quilt made from these 3 colors would be pretty enough. But what would it look like if you added more colors based on some of the lessons I gave you earlier. Instead of, for example, getting a yard of each fabric above and making 12 blocks from each, you can turn this into a scrappier quilt by taking each of the yards of fabric and splitting them into three 1/3 yard cuts in each color family. For instance, instead of 1 yard of red, I substitute 1/3 yard each of red, pink and a brown fabric that has a red/pink print (middle stack in the photo).

I did the same for the blue and the yellow fabrics as well. Now I can make 12 blocks from each stack, but instead of them all being one color there will be 4 of each color. See the side by side comparison of the 3 color quilt and the 9 color quilt below:

Or you can even mix the colors within each of the blocks to make it even scrappier like I did in this block below:

So here ends the color theory lesson. Hopefully this gives you more confidence when you look at a quilt pattern and wonder what colors you want to use to make it. Step out of the box and have some fun!

Happy Quilting!
Deanne