As a beginning quilter - I find it hard to buy less than an entire fabric collection. Or is that just because I'm now a quilter, and I LOVE fabric??
Either way, my current stash is made up of mostly fat quarter bundles of entire fabric collections, rather than random fabrics.
Any tips on ways to broaden my horizons?
Also, is it best to buy fat quarters? Or half-yards? Or a random assortment of these and other pre-cuts??
Anyway, these are my most recent purchases, and I ADORE them.
On the right - Tule by Leah Duncan
Both are Art Gallery Fabrics and, if you are familiar with their product, then you know they are divine. They have the smoothest, silkiest quilting cottons ever.
Let's start with Reminisce.
Here are just a few of my favs from the bunch.
I just love that punchy, mod floral - in both colorways. Having a hard time deciding what quilt to make with this line. Currently, I'm torn between Swoon (even if I am a year or two behind everyone else) or Flower Path. Which do you prefer??
I just HAD to give this last fabric it's own showtime debut.
Isn't it fabulous?! I want to buy yards and yards, wrap myself up toga-style, and prance around in fabric heaven. Don't judge if you don't feel the same. If you're a fellow sewaholic, then I'm sure you have your own toga fabric in mind. Perhaps we could throw a party?
I have no idea what I'm going to do with this Tule bundle yet. I just couldn't not buy it.
Current Sew Tunes: Imagine Dragons
I like to put boarders and binding on my quilts. You may want to pick out some that you would do the borders with. You can use a solid for the binding later on, but the borders work best if they are one of the fabrics in your quilt. How big of quilts are you going to make. Fat quarters are good, but they don't make very big quilts unless you use lots of fabrics in one quilt. Some of the baby quilts I make start with only a 5 inch strip of a fabric and then I go from there creating. Others I use the same of 2 and more of the third fabric or use 5 fabrics with one of more for the boarders. Sometimes I use 2 boarders. I love stripes for the outside boarder. Sometimes I will use a thin solid boarder to mat in my quilt like a mat board in a picture frame. Random thoughts. Pam Price
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts on borders Pam. That is definitely something I am going to try!
DeleteWere you around for the stash sharing party on my site? I think almost 40 people shared their stashes and their thoughts on stashing -http://sarahquilts.com/2013/08/01/theory-thursday-you-show-me-yours-ill-show-you-mine-linky-party/. Kind of changed my life! Definitely changed the way I fold and store my fabric.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there's anything wrong with buying whole lines if you really love them! I especially like to buy lines of designers I know I love and trust because they tend to continue to build on each other over time. They use a lot of the same colors in past, present and future collections.
A good way to go beyond designer collections is to start collecting basics like stripes, dots, and texts. Any fabric that is just one color or tone on tone can also be considered a basic or a blender. Lately I've been really into half yards. It seems like fat quarters go too fast. On the other hand a fat eighth bundle can be really fun if you don't want to make too big an investment. Then you can get yardage of any of the prints you just love, like that last Tule fabric.
Longest comment ever. Sorry. :)
Don't apologize, Sarah. Your comments are very appreciated. I only just recently found and started following your blog, after finding your series on making your 1st quilt. Great stuff! I took a look through some of the posts from you linky party on stashes. Those were very helpful also. Thanks! Look forward to seeing more from you on your blog!
Delete