Sometimes I have fabric that whimpers and cries when I put it on the mat and show it the rotary cutter. :-( So I give it a gentle, reassuring stroke and put it back in my stash cupboard - these pieces are my 'pets'. :mrgreen:

Happens to me all the time. My husband, too. He is a wire jewelry designer and he says the stones tell him what to do. I'll have a stone in stock and just have the urge to have him set it and the next show it will sell, usually to someone who just walks up and knows it is hers! We're a nutty bunch, artists!

When shopping it will call my name :) Not only fabric call my name LOL

I'm new, this hasn't happened to me yet. Usually a design will say I'm for "this person," please make me. Then it's just a matter of finding the materials that are required to bring the design to life.

I agree. I have a stash and it a comfortable one to me. it is not over whelming to me as I still know what I have, and from memory can add to it for matching. It is always a challenge to complete a 'series" to make up a quilt set. that to me is the great fun. met a lady who was bragging she had over 500 projects started, not counting two bedrooms full to the doors of fabric. that is hoarding, and no one wins, unless it is a yard sale.

I agree. I have a stash and it a comfortable one to me. it is not over whelming to me as I still know what I have, and from memory can add to it for matching. It is always a challenge to complete a 'series" to make up a quilt set. that to me is the great fun. met a lady who was bragging she had over 500 projects started, not counting two bedrooms full to the doors of fabric. that is hoarding, and no one wins, unless it is a yard sale.

My fabrics talk all the time. And I have a "padded by fabric room" where they talk to me.
the other day I wanted to do something with all the materials talking to me from that room but couldn't decide where to start. A little voice from nearby called "we are here waiting patiently" - 3 moda layer cakes I had purchased for $5 each happened to be seen. I scooped them up and have been happily working on them several days. However, I needed an accompanying material. At first perusal of the stash a lovely little piece of white on cream called to me. But they weren't playing nicely together and the others started screaming that it just wasn't going to work out (without cutting the cream yet). There was aclashing fabric mutiny going on! So the stash called again and I searched harder and low and behold a large piece of white fairy frost whispered "I might be just the ticket" and the modas are now happy and I am thrilled!!! (Mostly not to have the talk going on!) ;) When we're all harmoniously put together I will post a pic! I might call it my summer star talker! :-D

juneeloonee,
I would like to see the photo when you finish the quilt. It sounds fantastic!

When I was first learing to quilt one of my teachers told me that the quilt will tell you what it needs. It does!!!! I've worked on something, get stuck & don't know what to do next. If I walk away/ or go to bed & sleep , the next morning I wake up and know what it wants me to do.

[quote=juneeloonee]My fabrics talk all the time. And I have a "padded by fabric room" where they talk to me.

Love that! It is very dangerous for me to enter a fabric store. Fabric knows my name and loves to use it. I seem to enter a semi trance once the smell of fabric wafts past my nose and it just leads me around the store. I wonder why the sale fabric only whispers and the batiks just scream?

I thought fabric only had a vocabulary of two words - "BUY ME". That's all I've ever heard from it but almost every piece I see says it. Some quietly and it takes me a minute to hear it, some screams and I hear it right away. Once in a while, a piece whispers and it takes me a while to find it but it's usually worth the hunt.

It only seems interested in conversing when it is trying to pry money from my hands. As soon as the transaction is over and we're in the car, it clams up.

i work at Joann's and a lot of fabrics seem to scream to me. i have learned to tell them NO until they are on a really good sale. i bought the rest of a bolt of fabric with a gold-ish background with navy and green floral on it. i dislike GOLD, but it called to me, and now i am collecting fabrics to go with it and hopefully tone the gold down.
i did hear a voice as i was working on a baby quilt for my grandchild-to-be. it said 'YOU KNOW IT'S GOING TO BE A BOY, DON'T YOU?" so i gave the pink one i had made to a little girl born just before NATHAN was born and the just-in-case blue one was his by default. the ones that seem to talk the loudest though are the ones that are the focal point ones, and then i have to come up with something to go with them.

Definitly, the fabric talks to us. Last year I made a lap quilt and as I was working on it , it told me to give it to Linda. I really was just trying out the pattern. It made three trips to Penna and when I didn't see her, I brought it home. Others looked at it and liked it, but it kept telling me don't you dare give me to anyone else. Finally this past month, I came across it again. Again it said LINDA. I haven't seen this lady in many years.
She got it and said it was on her table as she wanted to enjoy it for a while everyday. :P She was so pleased that I thought of her and so I wrote back and told her that it told me to give it to her.
Fabric has to talk to us before we can make something. We might start it and not want to finish it. Two years ago I had started a quilt (lap size but big enough for a single bed.) We were getting ready for our family reunion, so it finally told me to take that UFO and make it for a door prize. So yes, fabric talks to us or we wouldn't have so much. Isn't it fun to dig in a stash and finally have it tell you what it wants to be? :roll:

Sure does. Sometimes it jumps right off the shelf and into my cart.

It will happen to you. Just wait. When you can not resist a fabric with nothing in mind, it is talking to you

I'm dealing with that topic right now and I am waiting for some of the Boomerang swap F8s to talk to me. Some are practically jumping up and down and telling me exactly what they want to be, but some have their arms stubbornly crossed in front of their fabricky chests and refuse to give it up. lol

i walked into my lqs, and this black fabric with a teeny tiny floral viney kind of print said "i need to go to Anne" she's my oldest friend...and i finally figured out what to do with it...cause you know i bought it!! when i get it done, and mailed to her..then i will post it...cause she reads this too!

Hi Folks, Here's another twist on the topic "do fabrics ever talk to you?" I was helping clear out a dear friend's sewing roo, and my husband and I were carrying out boxes of old papers, magazines, and other odds and ends. I asked my friend if she had checked through all of this before discarding it. She replied that she had. It turns out that she had not checked all the boxes, because from within one huge cardboard box I heard a small voice crying out "help me!" I freaked out but I started to sift through the top layers of papers and magazines when I discovered almost 300 (yes that's right!) hand sewn squares of Sunbonnet Sue, Amish Dahlias, crazy quilt squares and others. All were sewn using fabrics from the 1940's and 1950's. I couldn't believe how close these treasures had come to being taken to the dump. I was so distraught that I asked my friend had she forgotten them? She said yes she had forgotten and here's the part that almost made me weep; all of these squares had been sewn by her late mother. My friend wanted me to have these squares knowing how much I love these old treasures, but I could not do that. She asked if I would see that they be given to the ladies in my small quilt group and that is exactly what I did. I kept 24 so that I could make a quilt top of Sunbonnet Sue for my own memories, and the rest I gave to those ladies who knew my friend's mother. More poignant memories...for all of us.

I just returned to work today after 8 days off and found that fabrics also leave messages! My co-worker had bought me about 5 pieces of different fabric because she said "It told me that you could use it"!!! (We work in the fabric dept of Walmart)

But ain't it a fun crazy?!!!

Went to JoAnn's today to look for some fabric for my dad's quilt. Found a batik that I absolutely loved 12.99yd (had 50% off coupon), thought it would great with all of the blues. Got it home and the next thing I know this lattic pattern shows up next to it and now its going to be used there. The fabric told me where it wanted to go!!! :roll: :lol: :lol: Now back to dad's quilt!!

Rarely do I pick a pattern and then the fabric. I pick fabrics that absolutly call to me. When this happens, I know that a patter will turn up that I'm suposed to use. Several years ago I walked into my lqs and saw a sunflower material. Golds and yellows on a deep green background. Very rich looking. I bought 6 yards to make sure I had enough for whatever I would make. Every once in a while I would take it out and look at it then put it away. Then I saw a stack and whack pattern. I knew it was the rite pattern for that fabric. I also knew that even though I loved the fabric, I would not keep the quilt. It was raffled for our local Giving Tree. The people that won it said it was absolutly made for their bedroom. If you listen, they will speak!

I have had fabric that I had put back on the rack that I wasn't goinging to get as I had come in for a particular item. And I swear I am not lying, but as I made my purchase and I was leaving the store, there all these bolts of fabric happily walking out the door behind me.. And I know you are not going to believe this, but they were all singing, Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to Claire's we go, she may not be great and she may take her time, but being at her house we are always treated fine,,, . Of course the store owner never, not for a moment does she believe this. So out comes the check book.. I look back at my sweet little walking and singing buddies and snarl... "you better REALLY be worth it or you are going to become fat quarters...."