Originally Posted by
Sadiemae
You can use however many fabrics you want to. When I taught beginning quilting, I had my students use three colors just to make it easy to calculate the amount of fabric needed.
Makes sense to me - it also might help keep the cost and leftovers to a minimum.
You might gather some of your fabrics from your stash that seem to work well together, and THEN go for the backgrounds and sashing.
I think it makes a quilt look more unified if you use each fabric in at least two blocks, preferably more.
I always think of patterns as suggestions - but I'm not a beginner beginner anymore, either.