I loved all the choices when I was in San Francisco. Tho I haven't been back since 86. The fabric was so cheap then I have wondered if it still is! I have a friend in Santa Maria who has invited me to come visit. Thats not too far from LA.

since i live in georgia, i guess i'd better start raiding the cotton fields right before the harvest so i can spin, weave and dye my own. pretty soon, that and mugging people for their shirts will be the only way to get fabric for a price i can pay without passing out or getting a second mortgage.

Oh yea I almost forgot! Mugging people for their shirts. Or the next best thing. Didn't quilters of old use left over fabric or should I say recycled fabric? Thrift stores, are the answer :roll: :thumbup: I do have a good size collection of great fabric from discarded garments. Usually like new and very colorful when the style didn't catch on for whatever reason.

You can always mottle your own fabric. I buy many different colors of the Country Classic Solids at JoAnns when it is on sale, and then lay the piece of fabric in the bathtub, or outside on a sheet of plastic if it is too big, then I use a spray bottle with regular chlorine bleach in it and spray it. Some colors only require 30 seconds to get the desired color, some longer, then rinse completely with cold water and pop in the dryer.

I have a queen size quilt top done for my daughter which required lots of different colors, and did it that way, so even using the same base color, the shades came out different. This is the top just in the design stage, trying not to put any of the same colors together, still up on my design wall. Just need to quilt it now

Wow - cool quilt. I never heard of your mottling method but sounds good! Thanks for sharing.

thanks. I read it in one of my quilting magazines, so thought I would try it. If you do a solid black, the mottled color (at least on mine) was orange, would be great for Halloween.

This was actually a scrap quilt, but called for over 5 yds of the black solid, ended up having to go to a JoAnns other than my usual one, cause it was right after Halloween when I was looking for the black solid, and the local ones were temporarily out of stock, so bought a full bolt of it and was able to use a 50% off coupon, so made it worthwhile.

I read an article that said you can dilute bleach with water and dab or paint or spray. You can lay out leaves designs or whatever. When you like the look, dip in white vinegar , is supposed to stop bleach action. I have NOT tried this.

I have a pile of old shirts I got cheap at garage sales, nice buttons and bright colors. A good addition to scrap quilts.

I also want to get some interesting t- shirts at grage sales, to go with some I have to try a t-shirt quilt.

I also have a few flat sheets and flannel sheets , picked up at thrift stores, garage sales, and spring sales at stores.

The rest of my fabric I get at walmart and joanns, and I once in a while get some at a garage sale

So if there is a will to quilt, there is a way

One last thing I told family give me gift cirtificates to Joanns and walmart...for birthdays and mothers day ect

Vinegar is used to fix a dye. I Never heard that it would stop the action of bleach but I wouldn't personally rely on that method until I tried it on a small sample. I think the best sure way to stop bleach action is to wash it out. And maybe toss in a splash of vinegar with the soap. The Idea of using bleach to mottle fabric is brilliant however. Now why didn't I think of that? I'm seemingly always do that by accident it just seems to make sense to use it as a controlled method now that you mention it!

So far I just look for what I like and pick up complimentary colors or things I like. With the Hawaiian patches I've gone bolt happy and start piling them up till I find the combinations that says happy, happy, joy, joy. With the patch works I've tried to evenly distribute solids and prints and varying the values, though try to keep it simple as that's what I like.

I do appreciate the great work of a master such as Jinny Beyer, but at this point I don't have the resources to buy and store tons of fabric. Besides a quilt doesn’t need to be overly complex to be stunning. I’ve seen things done with two colors that can boggle the mind. What will be fun is when I get several quilts along and have a lot of scraps, then I'll be able to have a field day of creativity with color.

Your quilt is stunning. I just love the bright colors. I had never thought about mottleing fabric with bleach. I'm going to have to give that a try. I really like the mottled fabrics and they are hard to come by at my WM since they have cut back on most of the fabric. JoAnns is over an hour away so I don't get to go there as much as I'd like. Thanks for the great suggestion.