Blooming Nine Patch...
 

I am head over heals for this pattern but am so very intimidated by the color selection! Anyone have any tips for this one?

Pinterest has lots of Blooming Nine patch quilts, all are beautiful colors. I made one years ago all solids. I think the prints or floral looks so much prettier. This is a quilt you need a design wall. It's very easy to sew but very confusing to lay out.

I like either florals or pastels. Saw one with batiks that was beautiful.

I have done a couple of these. Start with what color you want then start picking out going from light to dark, it works really good (although you can't always do this) to have some of the colors in fabric 3 in fabric 2. Do you have the book? She does through (if I am remembering correctly) how to choose fabrics and what works and what doesn't. Know that you will probably need to go to more than 1 QS to find the fabrics. Unfortunately I gave mine away and of course don't have pictures.

If you don't have the book, it really is a good investment it has several good quilts in it.

The book pattern is very detailed and will help you a lot. [h=1]Tradition with a Twist: Variations on Your Favorite Quilts by Blanche Young.[/h]

My LQS was having a 25%sale off most everything so I thought it was a good time to get the book I want to make one with batiks that I have an enormous stash of and added a few more yards because "they were 25% off"..anyway if the snow storm comes their forecasting for fri-sat comes maybe I can start auditioning fabric!

Consider using a color wheel...start with your favorite color and then use the color wheel to pick the remaining colors. If you are auditioning the fabrics you already have and you are not sure if you have them in a pleasing order, take a picture and see how the fabrics look in relation to each other. Sometimes it is enough to look through the view finder. You can keep rearranging the fabrics until they look good together.

I don't think that this quilt works well with fabrics that vary a lot. If it would be suitable for fussy cutting then it might not work well. Most of the pieces are cut fairly small so think about the variation you would get between 1 or 1.5 inch pieces of your fabrics. As with a OBW, the effect of the fabrics will be more their color values and motif size.

I've seen it done well both including a few fabrics that read as blenders, to give the eyes a place to rest, as we as without any blenders for a busier effect.

I started with my first few fabrics when I made mine, then choose more fabrics as I went along. Making one or two sample 9-patches and then laying them on the fabric bolts was helpful as I went along.

Blanche is a dear friend. She is now in a care center and is in her 90s. Her family moved her to California to be near family. I have made so many of her quilts. Lots of the Bloomin... My favorite is the Jamaica and made lots of Baby Bloomin.. She gave me patterns that have never been published. She is a wonderful person and so talented. She has a real sense of color. What you think would never work - does. Lots of small florals light to dark work great. Her book has been a top seller for years. She is the "inventor" of strip piecing and was honored at Houston for her innovative ideas in quilting.

I remember when her first book came out with her daughter Helen Frost...back then the cutting was done with cardboard template and scissors...slits in the cardboard for marking...so much easier now! I am glad that she has been honored for what she gave to the quilting world!