I am curious . For those participating in the square swaps....as you have been cutting these pieces and going through you various stash to send these on......did you notice a particular style of fabric you seem to have a propensity for? Not just in color, we all do that, but more pattern or style, ie: large floral, small floral, nature, plaids, polka dots, stripes etc. I have found that I, no matter how much I try to diversify, have a real leaning to the more natural world in my fabrics. Outside of my batiks, I pretty much have a lot of floral based fabric. Large to small, bold to pale. Not that I don't have solids and plaids and such. I just thought I would ask if anyone else noticed as they were prepping for the swaps. :?

I've noticed that, too. Whenever I make an attempt to get the stash organized by color, I can see I have huge amounts of green fabric and not much pale fabric of any sort. I think I must get into "material moods" 'cause I've got piles of mottled fat quarters in vibrant solids, crazy bright batiks and loads of black-and-white optical illusion prints. Psychologists would probably have a field day with fabric-aholics, no? :lol:

My smallest piles are orange, yellow, and brown, I do like florals, I have more pink and blue..............I think it has more to do with the time of the year and the fabric we are offered in the stores. Take a look and see how much orange print you find, I have noticed some people have small print pastel.......Now I am confused. You tell me what did I have.

I could probably walk into a fabric shop blindfolded and STILL come out with rich browns, deep greens, and leafy autumn prints. They whisper and call when I try to pass them by. Luckily for e-bay vendors, I buy pastels and brights in odd lots to keep me balanced. I love batiks, but not the price :roll:


I also keep a few boxes of dye on hand in case something is just tooooo unappealing to my "delicate" sensibilities.

take heart, my friends. this all means we are true artists who go through "periods" as did all the great masters down the centuries. look at Picasso's total body of work. he started as a traditionalist. he didn't get all choppy and cubey until late in his career. he even had a "blue period" i think.

when i finally start cutting and mailing to all the people i owe for this swap, it's going to feel GREAT to once again use of some of the fabrics i loved at the time ... and love still ... but that no longer "fit" into my current habits. being one who buys fabric by the yard whether i need that much or not, i'm going to have a blast sharing all that built up wealth. :-)

ok ... where's that rotary and ruler?

I find I have purples and batiks mostly and other small prints. For some
reason purple seems to call me, have 9 pieces of varying colors to make
a french braid quilt, then I will have more scraps. :lol: :roll:

I love to watch other people at the quilt store and see what they are buying! I do know the ladies in my 9 patch exchange wish I was in some other group! I go to the wild side myself!

the wild side is where it's at!!! :mrgreen:

I think this is one of the reasons swaps are so fun....we expand our vision, revisit old favorites, and maybe even leap into that we might not otherwise have dared. It will be especially interesting to see how all these turn out. Even in the varying expressions of each quilter we, I dare say, will find new and interesting aspects. Can't wait...but will, have to, not finished with the sewing room yet. :evil:

I have found that even though red is my favorite color, and pink is second, those are my smallest piles in the stash closet. The biggest is blue, then green. I actually have the blues divided into 3 piles (dark , light and turquoise-ish) And the greens are in light and dark piles.

What I seem to buy every time is nature themed, also. Fall is my favorite time of year because of the colors on the trees I grew up seeing (in PA and VA.) Its just so amazing to see that incredible burst of color as the summer disappears and the cool air of autumn settles in. The earth relaxing and getting ready to rest with one big show for the finale.

If there is a special project, I have non-nature prints and colors, like all the purples I bought because my daughter wanted a purple quilt, and of course as soon as I had stock piled enough, she was in her "black period," so I had to collect black and white fabrics for the Three Bean Salad quilt I made for her. It did turn out gorgeous. She was 16 when I made it for her and now that she's 18, it is still in a plastic storage bag cause she doesn't want to mess it up. LOL

I guess it may grace her bed when she's married someday.