Wonky Fabric Rant

Sounds to me like it'd be hard enough to find R/W/B in an autumn pallet even if your budget wasn't limited! And I empathize about the cheap fabric, altho' in all fairness (darn it!) I have gotten cloth from the LQS that wasn't top notch, either, But to remind myself of quality, I always carry a swatch of good cloth with me, so when I'm tempted to buy cheaper stuff I can whip it out and see how it all compares. I know that has saved me from a few "bargains."

HURMMMPFFHHH

their

*#&$*&@#*& on your behalf, slamming the lid on the trash can and kicking something. Sharing your frustration, Polly

(mutter, mutter, grumble, grumble

I have a solution for wonky fabric - instead of trying to straighten the grain across the width of the fabric, folding and cutting the strips as you are used to doing - work with the fabric piece using the selvage edge as your straight edge to begin your cuts. Don't try to line up the cut cross-grain edges - let the fabric drape its own way. Once you have cut off the selvage, you have a straight edge which is on-grain to measure strip sets from, and the fabric length is 45" by 18" wide. Whether you cut the quilt pieces single or double thickness depends on how badly the piece is warped and how big the pieces are that are to be cut. Jennifer in Ottawa

-------- Group: rec.crafts.textiles.quilting Date: Tue, Aug 5, 2003, 11:15pm (EDT+4) From: snipped-for-privacy@aol.comnekoluvr (Tia=A0Mary-remove=A0nekoluvr=A0to=A0reply) =A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0AAARGGGGGHHHHH -- yet another reason NOT to patronize the cheaper places that sell fabric . I am making a "lap quilt for two" for my DSis to give as a wedding gift. She is paying for the fabric and I am doing the work just cuz she's my little sister. =A0 DSis sent me the $$ and a picture of a quilt from last year's Pottery Barn catalogue with a picture of a R/W/B quilt that the bride would like duplicated -- sort of. I think I mentioned all of this in a previous post but I'm not sure. =A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0Anyway, the quilt is a very simple one -- just 8" whole cloth blocks. The bride has asked for a R/W/B autumn pallette (sp?). Just TRY finding R/W/B fabrics in an autumn pallette! What's available in the LQS and in the "other" fabric stores is primary R/W/B

-- flag colors and mostly flag designs and the bride does NOT want any flag stuff. The quilt in the picture has at least 15 fabtrics so it's pretty scrappy. Needless to say, I have been buying fabrics in the required color wherever I could find them. The fact that I am on a

*very* limited budget has a fairly big impact on what I can buy too! =A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0So, I have fabric from the regular fabric stores and from the LQS in both GA and MN. I just finished cutting out all the blocks today. I figured that I would buy 1/2 yrd of each fabric. I knew I would be able to get 5 blocks across the width of ***most*** of the fabrics. That extra 1/4 yd. was for the few fabrics that weren't quite wide enough for 5 blocks across. =A0 HURMMMPFFHHH -- about three of the not so good fabrics from the general fabric stores were barely 43" wide and SO wonky that I lost almost 3" in length ! What makes it even worse is that each selvedge measured 18" but the stuff was so off grain that once I got it squared up, I was lucky to have enough fabric for that 5th block! =A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0Not much to be done about it. I just needed to vent and have a nice rant amongst folks who would understand what a P.I.T.A. that "not so nice" fabric can be! I had DSis talk the bride about accepting a quit with fewer fabrics but she *really* wants that mega-scrappy look. She's been warned!!! Needless to say, ALL the fabrics were pre-washed! Who knows what that cheap stuff would look like if I hadn't pre-washed it =3D8-O (mutter, mutter, grumble, grumble *#&$*&@#*&).=

CiaoMeow >^;;^< PAX, Tia Mary =A0 >^;;^< Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their WHISKERS!! Nothing is complete without a few cat hairs!

Neatly trimmed...

GRRR in sympathy! I have also had supposedly good fabric that was like that! Luckily it was a garment and I had lots of spare yardage.

Mary: Gotta confess ... I am totally lost here! I've always thought that the Autumn Palette was a group of colors that one sees/associates with changing colors of leaves in the Northern Hemisphere during October and November. Gold, bronze, yellow-green, brown, rust, brick red maybe. Red, white, and blue are not Autumn Colors as far as I know. What is the bride thinking? I think of red and white as part of the Winter Palette, with some Navy Blue and other colors of course. Light or bright blue are generally for Spring or Summer, depending on tone. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

This is why I do NOT tell people "I'm giving you a gift, what color do you want?" I just make a pretty quilt and present it with love. Special order gifts turn me off. JMO.

Hope your cutting problem works out. PAT

Tia Mary-remove nekoluvr to reply wrote: ...cut to the color issue...

I was in JoAnns last night, and this thread was on my mind. What I saw and what got me thinking was that if it *has* to be red/white/blue and she wants "fall pallette" versions of those colors, then what colors that I would use are:

Ivory (to replace white) burgundy and various red-orange shades (for the red) and muted blues (for the normally bright blue)

just my 2 cents.

Larisa

That's exactly the colors I thought of but you could use light tan & cream for the white.

What came to mind for me was this "American" style. Sort of Shaker (or is it Quacker) style & milk paint. Very New England...

Would that be a 'Duck Egg' blue then ??? Flossy Malvern England

***** Queen of Plaids ******

If you say so, but I'm with Pat. I can't think of a single blue I'd call an autumn color.

their

navy blue...the color of the ocean after the leaves have turned....

The Blessed Fiddy, Patroness Saint of the Disorganized LC in Sunny So Cal Personality Development Specialist (Full-Time Mom!)

[s4bw]

There's a book that tells you how to do it for yourself, done it - turns out I'm a winter, despite hair colour (natural) being on the light side of brown!

There is one (maybe 2) bue that autumn colouring (red hair, etc as a starter) people can wear, sort a periwinkle blue, but I agree blue isn't really an autumn colour.

Navy blue is in the winter palette.