Ethical question about quilt shows

Well, that's just scary.

But which 3?????????

Cindy

I've done that before. But I can only do it with solids, not prints. Prints aren't just that color, they are a variety of color.

I've seen design shows where they tell you to pick a fabric that you love and find the colors in the fabric to go with it. I pick fabrics that I love all the time. But if I have to pick something to go with the focus fabric, I'm pretty much lost. I don't "see" a color in an accent print. I "see" lots of colors.

That's why collections of fabrics appeal to me. Charm squares are the best thing ever invented. And since I pretty much only make mini's, I usually have enough fabric.

Cindy

All righty, Kathyl, I'll do it!

Cindy

I've been considering doing this. Only with 2" squares - the mini thing - dontcha know?

Cindy

Don't you feel better already?? Pati C. had some good ideas. You would probably have to work with someone to do some of the exercises she mentioned. It's difficult to teach yourself to see something differently. And maybe you do "see" things "differently". Maybe there are some colors that don't click as well in your eye or brain, or your brain confuses the patterns with the colors. But whatever, don't feel badly about it. Use the collections to your benefit. And if you mostly do minis...so much the better.

OMG!!! Cindy you are too funny.

Just pick the first 3 that raise their hands..........of course!!

HTH,

Marsha

You only have 1? I have 3. And they get emptied EVERY trash day and I've been in this 'racket' for 50 years. Kit? I bought one and I FOLLOWED directions and now I have a table runner that needs handwashing cause of the 'errors' in cutting directions. It has less than 1/8th seam in every block cause the numbers were WRONG. But *I* did it.....*I* followed directions and used her instructions and fabrics. .Colors were fantastic....pattern hadn't been proofread before sending out is all I can figure. hardest part about the whole thing? FOLLOWING Directions!!!!!!! I have another kit with fabrics-----I am *NOT* following it per letter---I am NOT putting an armadillo in it as we don't have them here.......I am ADDING diode lites on Dec's block and sparklies on another and using diff colors for the rocks but it will remind both DS and I of our Houston trip. It will also have to be changed to 'fit' where we want it to go. (What I couldn't understand is it is suppose to be 2 cacti throughout the 12 months --but the rocks at the bottom of such are diff colors/sizes on SOME of them but not on all of them. When I finish it will look like a desert of cacti--not just one cacti in diff months Neither will be entered in any contests as I don't *do* that sort of thing.

Butterfly (NOT sewing/quilting/crafting today cause I have to make DH's fruitcake for his HB and then a HB cake that the rest of us can enjoy..he's the ONLY fruitcake eater in this house. It's only 2 months til Christmas)

I have made more than one 2" charm type of quilts. Pop them into a brown bag and sew whatever come out next to it. Only rule, do NOT put 2 matching fabrics (blue with orange flower next to the same blue with orange flower). Every time someone comes over that doesn't quilt, they will ask me to make ONE WITH ALL THE COLORS on it for them. I gently refuse by telling them they will have to go on a list and be happy with number 15 or so and it takes me years to make each one, but thanks for the compliment. Seems like men like: the more colors the happier they are: over an intricately designed one) So, go ahead and make one--cut 2 1/2 inch strips of a number of fabrics, cut another the same until you have a line of them, lay them out on the cutting table and cut them the 'opposite way' so you have 2.5" squares, toss them into the brown bag, shake vigorously, sit down and start sewing. After awhile you are going to realize: "Hey I *LIKE* these 2 together or, oh boy, those don't look good at all. Do NOT unstitch just keep going. Now take those squares and toss them into another brown bag and shake em up and sew some of them together..see the pattern?

Pretty soon you will have enuf to make a full size quilt..

Butterfly (who has made a few of these and am working on another right now--using them as starters and enders)

All is not lost. If you can pick solids to go with one print then you can learn how to pick other prints. We can help you learn.

If you have an online photo album you could put up pictures of your stash fabrics and ask us if any of them should be put together, and get suggestions of other prints that would work with them. If you don't have an album, find some online pictures of the same or similar prints.

I've been learning that scale has as much or more to do with prints going together as color. That is the really hard part for me. Color I can do easily, but scale is harder. Debra in VA See my quilts at

Be proud of that. I'm positively horrible at piecing. Debra in VA See my quilts at

"teleflora"

Amen, sisters.

Goodnight Gracie..............

Amy in CNY and quilting up a storm! (oh, wait....i have to find my cotton comb...can spin thread until the cotton is combed...)

One thing that can help a lot is to make a series of small things. (Why do you think the fabric postcards are SO popular?) This gives you "permission" to try new combinations, and if it's not perfect, so what? You don't have a lot of time or money invested in any one project.

Another thing that works well is a trick I learned from a speaker at our guild (and SOMEDAY I'll remember who it was! LOL). Take a print you like from your stash. Look at it for a minute, then put it down. Now pull every single fabric from your stash that reminds you of that print in any way. Arrange them all in a row, and pull out the couple that jump out as "not going". The rest WILL work together, even if you don't use the original print.

And don't listen to that voice in your head that says "I can't". At the paint store I encounter dozens of people every day who think the same thing. Except for the very rare ones who are truly color blind, it's a matter of lack of practice, not lack of ability.

Do you think I, or most other quilters. have a co-ordinated stash? Think again. We all have odd prints that seem to not work with anything else. Either we inherited it or found it in a store and fell in love with it. Someday they will go with something though.

I have a bit of a problem stash myself. I love bright large scale novelty prints. I am good at applique, not piecing. This is a real problem because large scale novelties are no good for applique. I've changed may fabric shopping process to only buy fabrics that can be used to either make uncomplicated pieced blocks with the novelties I already have, or can be used in applique. Occasionally I still buy a new novelty print, but the scale is usually smaller now.

I've got floral prints I inherited and haven't the slightest how I'm going to use them, but I will. Maybe a brick, bar, or charm quilt. Debra in VA See my quilts at

But Pat, I may well want that pattern name. I can't remember people names, but pattern names are usually easy to remember so I can find them on the web later.

I would not expect a chapter and verse list of each individual change. Heck, I wouldn't want one either. Just a notation that part of the quilt was different from the original pattern by the quilter's specific desire. Debra in VA See my quilts at

Close your eyes, reach out, and pull one. Do that three times in slightly different places near your stash.

Or, pick one mostly red, one mostly green, and one mostly yellow/gold. Then next time try a different set of colors Debra in VA See my quilts at

When our house was first painted we had a parade of contractors brining their WIVES in.see the color..it would look nice in our _________room. I used Ragmop's phrase more tan once. "It's only paint" Kid across the street complained that HE ended up painting one of the rooms: )

Butterfly (who is not afraid of color or of using it. Don't like it...change it)

Cindy, I do too. Here is something to help, and once you have done it a few times selecting gets easier. Try to lay out your accent print fabric at one end of your yard. Hang it over a chair or shrub or something. Walk to the other end of the yard and look back. What color does the fabric seem to be now? If you hold your focus fabric in your hand and hold it up so you can see both fabrics, does the far away fabric look good beside the one in your hand? If the answer is yes, add a solid or TOT that goes with both prints and you have a set of three fabrics--two prints and a solid.

If you decide that you don't like the two prints together when they are both close to you, it may be a problem of scale. Find one print with larger items printed on it and another with tiny items and do the same process as above. Debra in VA See my quilts at

"Polly Esther" wrote... You know what I think you need, Cindy? I think you need permission to screw up. Pick out 3 things from your stash that you think just might play nice together. Make a block. Maybe two. Put them on your design wall for 2 or 3 days and consider them now and then.