Picking fabric...

[Juliejaz]

Does anyone else have trouble picking fabric? I don't have a stash yet unless you count leftover fabric pieces from my first quilt and a few other sewing projects ( a few fat quarters as well). Last night I shopped for the fabric for my new project and I spent almost two hours in JoAnn's matching up fabric. Pulling out bolt after bolt and then checking to see if it was going to work okay into my color scheme I had going. I had to pick twelve different colors. I like picking and matching the colors but I wonder why it takes me so long. Anyone else have some difficulty choosing fabric?

[Marilynsgrammy]

IT takes me forever too.. the fabric store is the one place I go all by myself and only when I have a day to kill.

I pick a colorful fabric, then I try to match each color in it with another fabric. I stack the bolts on top of each other and step back a couple of feet. If it looks good from a distance it will look good in the quilt .....

Doing it this way doesn't save any time, it will still take a long long time....

12 fabrics is a lot of different colors, what are you making?

Chriss

[ranchlife4me]

YES and YES!! The last quilt I did was for my DS' girlfriend and it took me 3 days to find the "perfect" fabric. I went to store after store and before I knew it 3 or 4 hours had passed each time and I still didn't make up my mind! That was only for 3 colors was supposed to be 5, but didn't work for me. What would I do with 12 colors?!?!?!?! I might never leave the store for let's say a week or two......
Gayle

[MAWmum]

12 fabrics is a ton! No wonder it took so long. It can take alot of time depends on the project it took me 3 weeks to find just the right boarder fabric for the quilt for my MIL.

[sunsup]

Me too. And I also have to carry them to a door or window to see how they look in "real" light.

[nanner]

Oh boy do I ever. Sometimes I get so frustrated I just look for kits. I loved it in "Still Stripping" cause they gave you the actual fabrics used. Now, the Yours Truly line is gone (I really loved that fabric), and its back to struggling again. The quilt I'm working on now was hanging on the wall at my LQS. I fell in love with it. Luckily for me, the owner who made it was able to tell me what she used and I bought that fabric on the spot.

Nancy

[QIAD-Linda]

My first quilt, a Log Cabin by Eleanor, took me hours to pick out. It was hard for me to use fabrics together that had different designs and scales.

One thing that will help you is to shop by fabric collection. In fabric collections the designer uses the same color family in several pieces of different scale and texture so it all works together for a quilt. I don't know if you will find collections at JoAnns but check it out.

Another thing that has helped me is to select a fabric that I just love for my main fabric. Then, look in the selvege edge of the fabric. Many manufacturers will put color dots on the selvege to show what colors are used in the piece. Then you can choose from those color families.

Most important is don't give up, it does get easier! Happy quilting!

Linda

[MAWmum]

Julie what part of Idaho do you live in we have Spudgrandma that lives in Boise, I live in Northern Utah so I was just we had talked about meeting in the middle someplace in the spring, Just wondering.
Carin

[Juliejaz]

Carin, I live in American Falls, it's about 30 minutes from Pocatello - I was in Boise just before Christmas. I grew up in Utah.

Julie

[MAWmum]

When Spudgrandma(T-lynn) and I meet in the spring we should have you come too. I know that there is an awesome quilt shop in Providence just south of Logan or if there is something in Idaho I have no problem driving there.
What part of Utah are you from? I grew up in the West Valley area then moved to St George for 6 months then back up North here to North Ogden.