stuck on certain colors

I think we all do that with our own particular colors/favorites. Anybody with any amount of stash can look at it and see where they are wayyyyy overloaded in certain colors and light in others. Mine has a TON of landscape type fabrics (looks like sky or water or rocks or tree bark, etc.) then an even bigger TON of batiks in which greens and purples are by far the largest piles with browns and red/oranges next and following close behind with a moderate amount of blues- and yellows and neutrals are sadly lacking. In other fabrics the same goes for the piles of prints and textures- the same color balance- or non-balance, I guess. And I tend towards clear, rich colors- and almost never muddy ones or pastels. Sometimes I note which colors have the least amount when I am on a fabric hunt, but I still find I have to buy the favorites, too. In prints, the majority of mine are high contrast and medium to large-ish prints, and even my tone-on-tone fabrics tend to be rather busy or mottled with other colors so I have the same issues as with colors. But batiks always reign supreme!!!

Now, I'm curious about other quilter's stashes...

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

"Michelle C" wrote in message news:g6vmaa$93o$ snipped-for-privacy@registered.motzarella.org...

mpulse is to use a

I am mostly drawn to florals and novelties, but I buy a wide variety of colors and textures. I have been collecting for a neutral quilt for a long while. I had better start it one of these days. At one time I was really lacking in yellow, so I told myself that if I found a mellow yellow buy it. Now I have a pretty good selection.

Sadly, cream, tan and brown. Lots of florals and repro's. Every time I go out, I tell myself to look for bright colors. I come home with delicate florals and more Jo Morton.

Cindy

Glad to know I'm not the *only* one. :-) Besides, certain colors, I love delicate calicos and florals--can't get enough of them. Yes, my stash is definitely lopsided.

I am mostly drawn to florals and novelties, but I buy a wide variety of colors and textures. I have been collecting for a neutral quilt for a long while. I had better start it one of these days. At one time I was really lacking in yellow, so I told myself that if I found a mellow yellow buy it. Now I have a pretty good selection.

You've got more discipline than I do! :-) I'm planning to do a quilt with orange in it sometime. No pattern or anything in mind; just a desire to work with orange. I think I have two pieces of orange in my stash. HA! So I've got awhile to plan while I collect.

I find myself coming home with brights rather than pastels or florals. I'm partial to reds - but not pinks. Pinks do not live in my stash. I do like the autumn colours too

Heather in West Oz

Debra in VA See my quilts at:

I've got brights and novelties in medium to large size prints. Pink is fine as long as it is of the bright cotton candy type. Almost no autumn colors, and absolutely no pastels. Debra in VA See my quilts at:

I have a wide range of colors, textures. Some brights, some large or medium or small print. More than my fair share of batiks. No repros [which is fine by me]. Some but not a lot of novelty. I will always pick up an orange that strikes my fancy, or a red that leans towards the black [versus blue] for my Sairey Strips on my quilts. I think a nice mish mosh of things in my stash [always open for rootling by anyone passing by this area!]

G> I think we all do that with our own particular colors/favorites. =A0Anybo= dy

I have a range of colours,I love Purples and greens in particular but when I am shopping I have been trying not to get those colours to try and get out of my comfort zone. Now I find I have not enough Purples!Ah well, off to San Fransisco in October and hope to find a teeny weeney piece or two then! lol

Oh yes! For a while, everything I made seemed to be all the same few colors. The colors that look good ON me. And there's nothing wrong with that, but if you want to stretch a bit, you might enlist a quilty friend. Send friend to the store with some money and instructions to buy some colors that will challenge you. Then use what you get.

Scrappy is also helpful as a color exercise, especially if you get scraps from other people. Using your own scraps, after all, is just more of the same only smaller pieces.

The third suggesti> I find that when I go to plan a new quilt, my first impulse is to use a

Browns and blues far outnumber any other colors in my stash and I tend to collect textures rather than prints. (If Robert Kaufman doesn't quit creating new Fusions I'm going to be in trouble!)

The prints I do have are usually small.....probably because from far away they look like textures. lol The one exception are Asian prints. I absolutely love them!

All of the nice people who taught me to paint yelled a lot about muddy colors. Beginning artists are inclined to mix their paints until the colors become awfully dreary. Bringing that background to the quilting frame, I had gotten a little overzealous with bright colors. When I made My quilt for Me (something I hope all of you will do), I realized that enough bright is enough, in fact; it's too much. A little mud is a good thing. Polly

"Roberta" Oh yes! For a while, everything I made seemed to be all the same few

Hi Polly,

I *know* what you mean. For awhile, I was buying floral fabrics in my favorite colors--and even some that were not my favorite. Well to try to make a quilt that is all floral is a big mistake. I had to learn that whether I get as much kick out of a piece of plain fabric, plain fabric is absolutely necessary to bring out the beauty of the florals (or other fabric that needs to stand out).

Ah, a woman after my own heart with the purples and greens, Estelle! But like you, I want to get out of my comfort zone. :-)

Hi Roberta, Great ideas all. :-) I've done scrappy quilts that were unplanned--and I was fortunate to always inherit the scraps from another quilter who did not like to do scrappy quilts. The scrappies always tend to turn out well, maybe because I don't have a strong idea of what they should be. Can't be disappointed then. ;-) I've never thought about doing one that really wasn't scrappy, but to design it as I go along. Hmmmm. Since I posted this the subject, I decided to try to design quilts with other colors in EQ. I had to beat myself to use the brights. However, using the Dakota Star block, I designed a quilt with purple, ORANGE, RED, and black. So half the colors are outside of my comfort zone, and I really do like it. It is on my "to do" list. Going to have to start collecting orange and reds though. Darn! ;-)

On Fri, 1 Aug 2008 14:23:24 -0500, Leslie & The Furbabies in MO. wrote (in article ):

Blue, blue, and more blue.

Maureen

My fabric collection has lots of different fabrics in it. Many large pieces were originally purchased to make shirts/skirts/tops from, but may migrate into quilts. Most of those are novelty/large print types of patterns. I am woefully short on blenders/tone on tones/background type fabrics. So that is what I have been concentrating on buying when I "just buy". For class samples I buy as I need because it is always a good idea to use fairly current fabric that is carried by the shop. Those also get made up fairly quickly because they need to be up and showing.

I will join with whoever it was that said "pink doesn't live in my stash". I don't like pink and use very little of it. I do have some pinks, prefer them a bit on the purple side and deep. Don't like pastel pink at all. sigh. But I have made a pink and blue quilt. (Still don't like pink. but the quilt is done?? at least pieced.)

Pati, > I think we all do that with our own particular colors/favorites.