Originally Posted by
joe'smom
On the question of neutrals, do you think if you aren't using a large variety of neutrals, you should stick to just one? I'm currently looking for a neutral to use throughout the quilt, to replace my numerous black and white prints, something that would add a little more interest than my current neutrals that read as white. Suppose I find two I like, or three. Would it look strange to use a small number like two or three, rather than sticking with just one? I hope my question is clear. If you're going with a variety of neutrals, how big a variety do you think it needs to be?
This is always my dilema with scrappy quilts. In my opinion, you need more than 2-3 to make it scrappy and not risk it looking unbalanced. Personally I'd want 5-10. I did my first BH mystery (Orca Bay) scrappy. But I only had I think 5 (maybe 6) black/white prints. And I felt stuck - it was difficult to spread the fabrics out so I didn't have a clump all the same together. Rather than 2-3, I'd stick with one if you don't want to go all-out scrappy.