Originally Posted by J.M.
Last december I bought background fabric for a quilt, I needed 11 meters but they only had 7 on roll - but they could order it, they said. All right, I bought the 7 meters, but it is now august and they still have no idea when the rest of my fabric is going to be in. So I found another store - a webshop I had ordered from before - that had the same fabric. Everything matched, number, line, brand, even the picture. But now I've got it and although it is the same fabric, the color difference is BIG. I have no idea why, different color bath, maybe the fabric from the store was out in the light too long, I don't know. But there is no way I can use both of them in my quilt. *cries*
Luckily I haven't started my quilt yet (I was smart enough to wait until I had all my fabric), but now I have a dilemma. I need to start searching for a good background fabric again (difficult enought the first time) and I need 11 meters of it (almost impossible to do, even though it need not be one piece); or I could use the 7 meters I have and find another fabric that looks nice with it and use that for all the sashing. The last one seems like a good option but I don't know if the 7 meters will be enough for all the blocks (they say about 7 1/2 yards for this quilt, which means I might just have enough - or I might just be a bit short, probably the latter), and it would change how I want the quilt to look. But after almost a year, I am dispairing of actually finding 11 meters of fabric...
Sounds to me like the dye lot is not exactly the same. I learned that you buy what you need at one time and even though the clerks say "We'll be getting more in", nine times out of ten it won't match because of the dye lot (printing up the same fabric pattern, but the colors don't exactly match because the dye lot is different just a smidgeon). I would save what you have for something different or use what you have in the quilt but find another matching fabric to take the place of the yardage you can't use. I would forget about the fabric that was sent to you in that quilt because it just won't look right. Been there - it just doesn't work. But you can save what you have and just start all over again. I know it sounds expensive, but you probably won't be happy with it otherwise. The sashing idea sounds good! You should have enough fabric for that! Good luck to you. This is the stuff that makes us quilters. Edie