Originally Posted by
Littletree
For some reason, I would rather make bed sized quilt. Mostly like cotton fabrics. I have looked at several pattern but don't want to get over my head and never finish. For me I am just starting a stash of fabrics. There was a quilt pattern I was interested in but cannot find the pattern. They raffled off quilt and granddaughter school. Still looking for it.
Thank you for advice.
If you want to do a bed quilt - go for it! Frankly, I wouldn't worry too much about stash at this point. Your tastes will change, probably quickly and you could end up having a bunch of 'what was I thinking' fabrics. Save your $$ for the moment.
Think about using large blocks at this point - 12" (finished) blocks. As long as they aren't too intricate, you'll get in the groove of making the blocks and it won't take a bunch of them to get to a bed sized quilt in relatively short order.
You can also check out
http://www.quilterscache.com for some inspiration. They have blocks listed by name and by size and rate them all by degree of difficulty. Choose a large block that does not have excessive or overly difficult piecing.
When choosing your fabrics, once I have the block/pattern picked out, I then find my main fabric. Depending on how many other fabrics you need for your block/quilt, like others, I then wander the store picking out those. I tend to gather up what I 'think' is going to work and find a spot in the store to sit on the floor and line up the bolts of fabric in ratio to how those fabrics are going to go together in the block/quilt. In other words, if I have a 3 color block, I'll get my main fabric and the 2 that I think I want to go with it. If the other 2 fabrics are in equal proportions in the block, I'll set those down under the bolt of main fabric with proportionately enough of the other 2 bolts/fabrics showing to see if they really work the way I think they will. Lay them on the floor or prop against a wall and stand back - get some perspective. I might decide I really, really like one of the lesser fabrics and choose a different focus fabric some times.
At any rate, that's how I go about selecting fabrics.