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2022 Block of the Week – Block 6

Hi! Welcome back to my block of the week sew-along! We are now on to block 6 in the series. You can still join in on the fun. Here are the links to the previous weeks: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4 and Week 5. The patterns are all free and you can download them all from those previous blog posts. As I did in the other week’s posts, I will share some tips. This week, color choice and color contrast. Now on to block 6!

2022 BOW Block 6 – Robbing Peter to Pay Paul

The instructions to make this block can be found here: 2022 BOW Block 6.

Most versions of Robbing Peter to Pay Paul are those that have curved seams like this one:

I was only able to find this one version that is pieced from the 1897 LAC (Ladies’ Art Company). This pieced version also has the name “Arizona” given by Nancy Page in 1936. It is thought the name for this block came from a phrase credited to King Edward VI. In his 16th century reign, he actually ordered St. Peter’s church in London to sell land it owned to pay for repairs to St. Paul’s church.

Interesting trivia, King Edward VI was a boy king and mostly a figurehead while those behind the scenes battled to rule. He was 9 years old when he became king and his reign ended at age 15 upon his death. It is thought he died of progressive tuberculosis, although it’s not clear because he also had the measles before that. 

Color Choice and Contrast

Well, enough of the history lesson on the renaissance years! Let’s talk color choice. Choosing colors for a block or an entire quilt should not be scary. In fact, if you understand how colors play off of each other based on their shade, tint and how they contrast, choosing color is fairly easy. One of the best tools to use is that simple color wheel we learned about in grade school!

Bring this tool with you to the quilt shop. You can choose general color families you want for before going and then use this tool to hold up to fabric bolts to pick the correct shade. Look at the photo above. On the left, you can tell the colors are “warm” and on the right they are “cool”. You can choose all your fabrics from the left side for a warmer look or from the right side for a calm, cooler look. The closer together colors are on the wheel, the less they will contrast for a calm, quiet look. The opposite is true of the colors are further away from or opposite each other. The contrast will be high and designs will pop more.

Here is a brief description of shade, tint and tone that will also help you in choosing 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.

Here is a real world example of color choice and contrast. This first stack has fabric very close in shade, so there is little contrast:

When I replace two of the fabrics with the same color, but lighter (tint), look what happens. More contrast!

The two above examples feature cool colors. Now, watch what happens when I take out two of the fabrics and replace those with warm colors:

Look at the contrast now!

Another tip on picking fabric: pick out a bolt that you want for the quilt and then look at the selvage. Yes, I said that!

On most fabrics, you will find a series of “dots” or other marks with the colors that were used in printing the fabric. Use these colors to find bolts of fabric that will coordinate nicely with your already chosen piece. And you don’t even need to stay in the same fabric line.

Once you have fabrics at home in your stash, here’s a simple way to choose what you want for your latest project. Pick out fabrics and lay them out on a table. You can either stand back and look at them all together or take a photo on your phone and look at that. A fabric that doesn’t quite fit in will probably “jump out” at you as you look at the stack. Take that fabric out and replace it with another. Repeat until you get the look you want. I call this “auditioning” the fabric.

Well, that’s it for this week. Come back next week for block 7 and some more tips and techniques.

Remember, comment or ask questions throughout this series. At the end, I will have a grand prize giveaway. This will include my book, two of my newer patterns, some fat quarters and sewing scissors!

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

2021 Block of the Week – Block 7

Three more blocks to go before I share the cute wall hanging, and instructions to make it, for these blocks! I hope you are enjoying making the blocks and also learning something along the way. If you are just joining us, you can still get all the block of the week blocks by clicking on the following links for each week: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5 and Week 6. This week, the quilting tips I share focus on choosing color fabrics for your blocks and quilts and how you can build a scrap quilt using these tips. Comment on the post and you will be entered into a drawing for this week’s pattern and also be in the drawing for the grand prize at the end! Let’s get started.

Block 7 – Starburst

This block is a great one use to play with color choice. That’s why I decided to talk about choosing color this week.

To get the instructions for this block, click here: 2021 BOW Block 7.

As you can see, color choice plays an important role in this block. The placement of the gold fabric makes it look like a “burst” of gold in the front of this Starburst block.

Here’s a few examples of how color changes this block:

In the example on the left, I switched out the blue and gold so now it looks like the the starburst is coming from behind. In the example on the right, I switched to two colors with a black background instead of tan. It completely changes the look!

Choosing Color & A Little Color Theory

Moving on to this week’s topic. For many quilters, choosing the right colors for a project can stop them in their tracks. I am here to tell you there is no need to find this task difficult! Also, some colors you don’t think would look good together actually do end up looking good. Especially in scrap quilting. So, here are some handy tips for choosing fabrics.

Tip#1: Decide in advance how many different colors you want to use in your quilt. This will save you time in the quilt shop. The time to decide is before you get there. When you are in the store, pull out the chosen bolts and stack them on a counter or table, view how they look together.

By doing this you can see how the fabrics work together before you buy them. You can pull out the ones that “stick out like a sore thumb” in your opinion and search out another bolt to audition. I do this too when I a pulling fabrics from my stash to audition for a project.

 

Tip#2: Have you ever chosen a focus fabric but were stumped on what fabrics you wanted to pair it with? Simply check the selvedge! You will find a series of “dots” with the colors that were used in printing the fabric.

This is something I don’t think a lot of quilters know. Now, not all fabrics will have this in the selvedge but a good majority do. If there are no dots to use, look at the colors in the print and pull some fabrics that match with that.

Tip #3: Learn the difference between shade, tone and tint and how that effects the contrast between your 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.

This comes in handy when planning contrast of your fabrics you choose for a quilt or block. If you choose colors all very close in shade or tint, there will not be much contrast (left photo). Chooses colors of different tints or shades and you get more contrast (right photo):

All I did was switch out the darker blue and green with a lighter versions. Instant contrast!

Tip #4: Don’t be afraid to use a color wheel when choosing colors. The wheel helps you determine which are cool colors and which are warm colors. It also helps you to see how colors you choose will contrast with each other.

For example, if you want high contrast, choose colors on opposite sides of the wheel. If you want less contrast, choose colors close to each other on the wheel.  Red, yellow and orange are examples of “warm” colors and blue, green and violet are examples of “cool” colors. 

How to Build a Scrap Quilt

You can actually turn any quilt pattern into a scrap quilt with a little thought. I’ll use a simple 3 color quilt as an example. To make it easy, let’s say this quilt takes a yard of each color fabric (not including the background) and has 12 blocks from each color. Here’s the 3 colors:

These fabrics would certainly make a pretty quilt:

You can turn this into a scrappy quilt by taking those yards of fabric and splitting each yard 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).

Now you have 9 different fabrics instead of only 3 and this is how your quilt can look:

You can even mix the colors within the blocks to make it even scrappier like I did in this block below:

So, that’s it for this week. I hope you enjoy making the block and that you learn something new about color. Now you can go to the quilt shop and not be afraid to play! 

Leave a comment and be entered into the drawing for my pattern, Marbles & Jacks. You can use the colors I have chosen for the pattern or you can go wild and make every block a different color combination!

The drawing will be on Monday, May 31st. Good luck and see you next week! **We have a winner… Congrats, Catherine!**

Happy Quilting,
Deanne

Choosing Colors – Some Theory and Some Tips

I choose colors based on the design of the blocks I’m making and also the quilt’s secondary design. If I choose a color in a quilt block that does not mesh well, the block or secondary design can be lost. You need the right contrast between colors to enhance a design. When I talk with quilters in class, picking out fabric tends to strike fear into some of them when starting a project. So, I am here to take away some of that fear with a few tips. First, let’s cover some basic color theory.

Color Theory – Shade, Tint and Tone

This is by no means a comprehensive lesson on color theory, just some basics. If you are interested in delving deeper into this topic, there are quite a few web sites and books that go into more detail. 

Contrast is achieved by considering the value (tint or shade) 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.

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.

Where the 20″ line on my cutting board dissects the color wheel, is considered the dividing line between warm colors on the left and cool colors on the right. Colors close to the dividing line can be used as either.

The color wheel can also help with contrast. Notice the closer that colors are together, the less contrast. The most contrast is achieve with colors that are farther away from each other. So don’t be afraid to use a color wheel when choosing fabrics!

Choosing Fabric Color Tips

Tip#1: Decide in advance how many different colors you want to use in your quilt. This will save you time in the quilt shop. The time to decide is before you get there. When you are in the store, pull out the chosen bolts and stack them on a counter or table, view how they look together.

If you are “auditioning” already cut fabrics at home, you can do the same thing. This is how I do it:

I fan out the fabrics I plan to use together in the quilt and stand back. If a fabric jumps out at me by not coordinating… basically standing out “like a sore thumb”, I’ll remove it from the stack and place another fabric there to see if it works better. I repeat this as much as I need to until I like the combination.

Tip #2: If you are in a fabric store and have picked out one fabric you really like, here’s another way to find coordinating fabrics. Check the selvedge on the fabric!

On most fabrics, you will find a series of “dots” or other marks with the colors that were used in printing the fabric. Use these colors to find bolts of fabric that will coordinate nicely with your already chosen piece.

Tip #3: Use the “stacking up fabric” method from above to determine how your fabrics contrast. Let’s look at some examples.

If you choose colors all very close in shade or tint, there will not be much contrast:

A block made from this stack of fabric will be really pretty, but the design will be subtle because they are so close in shade. But, look what happens when I replace a few fabrics:

I replaced the dark green with a lighter green (a tint) and I replaced the dark blue with a lighter blue (also a tint). Now, the design of the block will be more noticeable. 

Finally, look what happens when I substitute a few warm colors for the cool ones:

So that’s my little tutorial on color theory with some tips thrown in for good measure. Hopefully this will help you on your next fabric buying trip. 

Leave me a comment below on this topic or ask any questions you may have. I will choose a person in the comments to receive a copy of the current Quiltmaker issue with my quilt on the cover! This scrap quilt is a great pattern for you to practice your color choosing skills.

The winner will be drawn on Monday, December 14th.  **We have a winner! Congrats, Donna Hanneman!**

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

Block of the Week – Block 3

Hi everyone! Welcome back to my Block of the Week. We’re already at block 3! I hope you are finding time to make these blocks. If not, be sure to print out the patterns for later. Here are the blog posts for the previous blocks of the week: Block 1 and Block 2. I’m also going to review some color theory tips in this post that should help you pick colors for these blocks while you are pawing through your scraps. So on to the fun!

Block #3 – Flying Dutchman

This block uses one of my favorite units to make: the flying geese.

You will definitely be an expert at making flying geese by the time you are done with this block! Find the pattern for this block here: Block of the Week – Block 3. For this block, I wanted to use some warm colors and kind of create a “warm to hot” look by going from gold to red. So this is where my information on choosing color will come in handy!

A Little Color Theory

It’s really not too complicated. Especially if you have access to a color wheel. You can find color wheels at craft stores or online. Mine is a little cardboard wheel that actually came with a booklet explaining the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary colors along with how to mix and match them. Here’s my wheel:

Notice how if you were to use the colors from the same square, they blend together but there’s not much contrast. Add in lighter versions of the same color and you can achieve more contrast. Here’s a demonstration with some stacks of fabrics:

In the photo on the left, there is not much contrast because all the fabrics are darker shades. Now on the right, I pulled out the dark blue and dark green and replaced them with lighter versions. Makes a big difference!

Besides considering the lightness and darkness of a fabric to create contrast, you can also create contrast and interest in a quilt block by using colors on different parts of the color wheel. For example, I chose a purple fabric and paired it with a green one. These colors are close to opposite each other on the wheel:

Notice how there is more contrast between purple and green than there was between purple and dark blue. Now look what happens when we move to a lighter green:

Even more contrast! Purple and green are both considered cool colors. So now, let’s switch out that green with a warm color like red and then go lighter with pink.

This next photo shows stacks of fabric going from cool to warm in each stack and then, from left to right, light to dark.

You could make a pretty interesting block if, for example, you pulled the green from stack 1, the orange from stack 2 and the blue from stack 3. Here you go:

So are you ready to make this week’s block?  Leave a comment below and be entered into the drawing for my pattern, Scrappy North Stars.

This pattern will give you a lot of practice with flying geese and playing with color. The drawing will be on Monday, May 11th so you have plenty of time to enter!

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

Tips for Choosing Fabric: Color

It’s never a bad time to talk about color. Choosing the fabric for a quilt project is often a sticking point for many quilters, beginners and experienced. I hope some of these tips and information can help ease a bit of that stress!

Tip#1

Decide in advance how many different colors you want to use in your quilt. This will save you time in the quilt shop. The time to decide is before you get there. When you are in the store, pull out the chosen bolts and stack them on a counter or table, view how they look together.

If you’re considering pre-cut fabrics at the store or at home, this is what it looks like:

By doing this you can see how the fabrics work together and pull out the ones that “stick out like a sore thumb”.

Tip#2

Have you ever chosen a focus fabric but were stumped on what fabrics you wanted to pair it with? Simply check the selvedge! You will find a series of “dots” with the colors that were used in printing the fabric.

Use these as suggestions on fabric colors that will match!

Tip #3

Learn the difference between shade, tone and tint and how that effects the contrast between your 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.

This comes in handy when planning contrast of your fabrics you choose for a quilt or block. If you choose colors all very close in shade or tint, there will not be much contrast:

The block made from this stack of fabric will be really pretty, but the design will be subtle because they are so close in shade. But, look what happens when I replace a few fabrics:

I replaced the dark green with a lighter green (a tint) and I replaced the dark blue with a lighter blue (also a tint). Now, the design of the block will be more noticeable.

Tip #4

Don’t be afraid to use a color wheel when choosing colors! The wheel helps you determine which are cool colors and which are warm colors. It also helps you to see how colors you choose will contrast with each other.

If you want high contrast, choose colors on opposite sides of the wheel. If you want less contrast, choose colors close to each other on the wheel.  Red, yellow and orange are the “warm” colors and blue, green and violet are the “cool” colors. 

Here are two blocks I have in the same quilt, one is cool and one is warm:

You can make a quilt all cool colors or all warm. Or you can alternate between cool blocks and warm blocks for high contrast!

Mix warm and cool colors in a block for some real fun!

In the above block, I’ve mixed a warm color, red, with two cool colors, purple and green.

So, are you ready to tackle picking out the fabric for your next quilt? I hope my blog post has helped to make you more confident in the quilt shop!

Leave a comment below about your color fears or triumphs and you will be entered into a drawing for the issue of American Patchwork and Quilting with my latest design, A Common Thread. This project could give you some practice in picking fabrics and colors!

Also included in the give-away is my pattern, Scrappy North Stars!

Now that one will really give you the opportunity for choosing colors! Drawing will be held on Tuesday, November 12th. **We have a winner! Congrats, Ellen!**

Happy Fabric Shopping!
Deanne

Scrap Quilting – Be Bold with Color!

Last week I promised to talk about color in my next post. So, here we are! Picking out fabric tends to strike fear into some quilters when they are starting a project. I’m here to say: no fear!

Take a look at the following photos. Some of these colors you would probably not think to put together in a quilt, but look at the result!

I like to make sure there is a good contrast between the fabrics I decide to put together into a block and, ultimately, the whole quilt. Having a contrast emphasizes the design of a block.

Contrast is achieved by considering the value (tint or shade) 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.

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.

Where the 20″ line on my cutting board dissects the color wheel, is considered the dividing line between warm colors on the left and cool colors on the right. Colors close to the dividing line can be used as either.

Here’s a quilt I made that shows you an example of alternating between warm and cool blocks:

Here’s a closer look of a row of the quilt. While I didn’t strictly stick to the cool/warm separation, I did try for the most part.

Planning like this is what I call “planned scrappy” because you are choosing and matching up colors for blocks ahead of time.  True scrappy is when you just sit by a bin of strips and scraps and work with whatever color you pull out. Here’s one of my true scrappy quilts. Aside from planning the black folded corner pieces through out, each block was made by just pulling scraps and adding them to the block.

Here’s a close up of a  few rows:

Here’s a quick experiment you can do with your fabrics to determine how well one contrasts with another. Stack up fabric on your cutting table to do a “mix and match” to get your preferred look.

The above stack does not have a lot of contrast as they are all shaded colors. Now look what happens when you switch out two of the fabrics for two are somewhat lighter:

I switched out the dark green for a truer green and the dark blue for a truer blue. Look how the contrast changes but you’re still using the same colors!

Next here’s some stacks where I have alternated between light and darker within the fabric stacks and then I laid out 3 stacks in warm/cool/warm sequence.

Imagine alternating blocks in those color combinations above! Well, you don’t have to because here is a quilt design using those:

You can even add in a fourth combination of another set of cool colors to get more of those in the quilt. But you get the idea.

So this brings to a close the mini color tutorial. There’s still time to enter the drawing to win my pattern: Follow the Stars!

Leave a comment on this blog with your thoughts on color and you will be entered into the drawing on July 8th! ****We have a winner! Congrats, Debra Miller!****

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

How to Build a Scrap Quilt

I love scrap quilts. I think the more colors the merrier! Not that one, two or three color quilts are not beautiful …. but a large variety of colors can make a simple pattern look more vibrant. At least in my opinion!

So, let’s say you have a quilt that requires 1 yard each 3 fabrics and has 36 blocks with instructions to make 12 blocks from each color. For my example, I’ll use yellow, red and blue.

This would be a pretty quilt!

However, what if you want to turn it into a scrappier quilt, instead of buying 1 yard each of the 3 colors, split the yardage up into smaller amounts to add in more colors. For example, instead of 1 yard of yellow, buy 1/3 yard of yellow, green and orange. Do the same thing for the blue and red fabrics.

As you can see above, I now have nine fabrics to work with! Instead of 12 yellow blocks, I will have 4 yellow, 4 orange and 4 green. Instead of 12 red blocks, I will have 4 red, 4 pink and 4 brown. And finally for the dark blue, I’ve added in light blue and purple and will have 4 of each of those blocks. So there you go…. instant scrap quilt!

Here are some real blocks demonstrating what I was talking about above. First, here’s 4 blocks all the same color.

Now, I have taken away 3 of the blue blocks and added in a green, a purple and a red block.

Another way to make a quilt scrappy is to actually mix the fabrics in the same block. Below, you will see that I am using the same 3 colors for the 3 blocks, but the each color is in a different part of each block.

Finally …. true scrappy! This is where you sit next to your basket of scraps and pull out a new color for each section of the block.

Now that’s scrappy!

Do you like scrap quilts? If so, use some of these tips to make any pattern you have into a scrap quilt. Share some of your scrap quilting tips with me and win a Snuggles Quilts T-shirt! The drawing will be next Monday 11/19/18! **We have a winner! Congrats, Pammy!**

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

Picking Fabric Like a Pro!

Have you ever picked up a quilt pattern and wondered “how am I going to get my quilt to look like the sample”? Well, it’s easier than you think!

First, I’ll share a secret with you … maybe it’s not such a secret … but when you see fabric in a quilt, whether it’s an individual pattern or in a magazine, most likely that sample was made 6 months to a year ago! Unless a fabric company has a sample made with new fabric not in stores yet and plans to have the fabric and the pattern debut at the same time, you might not find the exact fabric shown in the pattern. Often fabric companies print limited quantities of a line and when it’s gone, it’s gone! So what’s a quilter to do?

Search for fabric by color family and print size so it reads like the original fabric!

See this red fabric?

If you can’t find this exact piece of fabric, then you look for something in the same color family and shade. So here’s a piece of fabric that is close to the same shade of red and also has a print about the same scale.

What if you pick up a pattern that says to choose 15 color print fat quarters; 5 light, 5 medium and 5 dark? Stumped? Don’t be! This is where the fun starts! Light, medium and dark is all relative. Here is a blue from my stash:

This may be considered a dark blue if it is paired with a lighter blue fabric. But look what happens when I choose the next blue fabric:

That first blue is lighter so you can use it as the “light”, if you are only using 2 blues in the project. Or it can be a medium blue if you are using 3 blues in the project.

Look at this next picture. I have 3 stacks of fabrics next to each other. Lights, mediums and darks. Some of these fabrics are the same color (there are 3 blues and 3 greens for example), but with the variation of shade and print it looks like you have 15 different colors. That’s the fun of scrap quilting!

So head to the fabric store and start stacking up the bolts!

TIPS

Once you get that fabric home, make sure it’s prepared and ready for when you want to start your next project. If you are a pre-washer, get the fabrics washed, ironed and folded.

If you like scrap quilting, cut your larger pieces of fabric into fat quarters, fat eights and strips. Then you are ready to pull out smaller cuts when needed or pile up a rainbow of strips for that log cabin quilt!

Store your fabrics by size and color in labeled stack-able tubs. This makes finding the fabrics you want easier so you can get to the cutting and sewing. Here are some of my tubs that I’ve shown you before on my blog:

Organization keeps the fun happening!

So, leave me a comment on how you approach color when planning a quilting project. Do you follow the pattern choices to the letter or do you go off on your own in the quilt shop and experiment? I will pick a winner from the comments and you will receive a copy of my two newest patterns! I’ll pick the winner on Thursday, April 5th. **Congrats! We have a winner: Judy U.****

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

What Color Should I Use?

Color Choice

Color…. I am asked every time I speak to a group how I choose my color palette for my quilts. It’s an interesting question. To me, the colors I choose breathe life into my designs. If I have a color in a quilt block that does not mesh well, the design can be lost. You need the right contrast between colors to enhance a design.

I am a scrap quilter at heart. So I like a lot of color in my quilts. Once a design is complete, I will decide how many colors I want in the quilt. Then it’s time to “audition” the fabrics!

Here’s how I store my fabric:

Sometimes, all those bins are spread out across my floor!

By laying out the fabrics like above, I can see how each color interacts with the others in the stack. If one of the fabrics sticks out too much or fades from view within the collection, I know that it does not belong with this group.

Here’s how I sort out fabrics when I am looking for lights mediums and darks for one project. By stacking the fabrics as shown in the photo, I can see what the fabrics will look like together and also pick out the ones that may not fit in.

Here’s a photo that shows how I get contrast. The photo on the left shows the first grouping I chose. On the right, you’ll see that by replacing 2 fabrics with a lighter version, I created some contract within the group that will help accent the design.

You do not necessarily need to stay within a fabric line or even with fabrics from the same fabric company. What I have found is that using fabrics from the same genre pretty much insures they will look good together. For example, I use Civil War Reproduction fabrics. In most cases, this is foolproof. However, if I find a fabric that is not from a Civil War collection but fits in well with the other fabrics chosen, I will use it!

What if You Don’t Like the Colors I Choose?

I’ve heard it before. Someone looks at a quilt sample of mine, and will say: “I love the design, but I just don’t like the colors!” Well, if that’s the way you feel about a quilt ….. use the fabrics you like! I’ve even done that myself with a design of mine. Here is a quilt of mine made with the fabrics I love:

And here is the same quilt, made for my son’s girlfriend, in bright colors that I never use! 

See how the design works for both? Many quilt patterns are like that. Substitute the fabrics you like and you will love the design and the fabric!!

So, it’s time to go shopping for some fabric, right? When do we actually need an excuse!

Now, it’s sharing time. Do you have some tips on storing your fabric and on color? Share those tips and win a copy of my pattern, Homestead Trail, so you can practice your color choosing! I will draw for the winner next Monday, November 20th.

Happy Quilting!
Deanne