Fabric Preferences
One of the blogs I follow posted a photo today of a WIP that incorporates several "stash" fabrics with a focal fabric that she also had in her stash, and the results are stunning. The blogger made the comment that she usually works in one fabric line for each quilt and doesn't usually branch out on her own to choose fabrics. This brought to mind another blog post I read recently where the writer encouraged her readers to eschew the "one fabric line" notion and to choose fabrics based on scale, color, and how it fits with a focal fabric. I learned to quilt in a time where fabric collections didn't seem to be nearly as prevalent as they are today. Or, if they were readily available, maybe I just never realized it. I have sort of fallen into the "use a single line" lately because I love fat quarters, but after reading the blog post about choosing fabrics based on how they go with the focal fabric, I split up all my fat quarter bundles and "filed" them with the rest of my FQ's. Well, except for one selection of yellow, black, grey and white I've been collecting to make a quilt with ...
But I was wondering, how do all of you choose fabrics? Do you tend to stay with one fabric line or do you choose whatever tickles your fancy for your quilts? How do you feel about fabric lines, and if you use them, do you use only the fabrics in the line, or will you incorporate solids/marbles/blenders that aren't part of the line?
This topic seems to be big among bloggers (recently I've seen several different bloggers take up the gauntlet) so I'm curious what this community thinks ...