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 ...

It is rare that I run across a line where I want it all, so don't buy many precuts. That said, I might choose 2 or 4 out of a line, then fill in with what I have that I think works with it, and will shop for things to add. Collecting fabric in this way is one of my favorite things to do in quilting. I'm one of those that feels that using one line takes a little bit of the creativity out of the process (not to say I haven't done it though - and will likely do it again!)

I don't buy any one fabric line at all. I buy if a fabric catches my eye, but, I don't buy the coordinating fabrics. I add the fabric to my stash and when I want to use it, I will look through my stash to find fabrics I liike with it.That way I have a totally unique quilt, one that no one else will have.

I have been trying to use from my stash. Most of the modern fabrics have to used with their collection because they do not go with anything else.:thumbdown:

I buy only for projects. I don't think I've ever bought even a partial line for a single quilt. I usually find my focal fabric first and then determine what from that I want to highlight/lowlight and go from there.

Oh now see, I'm not sure I agree with that ... it almost makes me want to yell "Challenge Accepted!" a la Barney from How I Met Your Mother and see what I can do with a modern focal fabric without using the rest of the line. :D

Or maybe I need to get out more ...

I love pre-cuts and can't hardly resist them - one of the appeals is the collection and taking all the guesswork out of choosing colors so if the collection appeals to me then I must have it. I love fat quarter bundles and if you keep an eye out you can get good deals - I scan many different web sites when looking for collections so I can check prices. I tend to love Moda, Riley Blake, Free Spirit and others. That being said, if I am out shopping at my LQS - they do not have pre cuts - I will choose fabrics based on what I like - I just pick up whatever and add it to my stash. I usually don't buy for a specific quilt but like to have many fabrics on hand when I do need them.

:DOkay, I will leave them in the store for you. I guess I should have said, they do not go with anything in MY stash.

I buy all lines of fabric. When I see a fabric I love I don"t care what line it is from I just buy it. My quilts have several in them. I have only made one or two from the same line.

I believe it's a huge creative disadvantage to limit consideration to a single fabric line. Some of the best coordinates I've ever found have been not only across lines, but across manufacturers. I have way too much fun playing with color, texture, scale, value, and motion to let some designer dictate what fabric I use with what.

I bought a layer cake...I suppose that counts. :)

Plus, last year while in the states, I bought several from the Dr. Seuss line. It seemed really "easy" to just buy from that group of prints. Easy. But I did it. Mostly I just buy the main fabric or two that I fall in love with and try to coordinate from what I already have.

I do both. Most of the time if I find a line I just love I will buy a couple of pieces and then add from my stash or from another line that works. I don't often although I have made a quilt from just one line.

I buy whatever fabric I like. When starting a quilt, (other than a scrappy). I pick out the focal fabric and pick out other fabrics to go with it. I don't buy any fabrics from lines.

I have never bought a line of fabric. I buy what I like the looks of, a little or a lot, put it in my stash, then design a quilt around some fabric that catches my eye at the moment.

I've been scrappy for the last 4 or 5 years, in other words if I need red I use the whole spectrum of red.

2 things you can do to help, if you have your gorgeous focus fabric and don't know where to go from there, go to the color dots on the selvedge edge, you can get some great companion color ideas there.

Or, take a swatch of your focus fabric to the big home improvement stores and look at the combinations in the little brochures below the paint samples.
Somewhere people get paid an enormous amount of money to figure this stuff out, and we get the benefit, free!

Speaking solely for myself, quilts with fabric from all one line put me to sleep. They can be very very pretty but they don't have the zing required to make me look twice.

I think it's fun to choose fabrics that I feel look good together. Usually I am satisfied with the results of my choices. Sometimes I buy a couple of pieces from a line & then have fun looking through my stash for others. However, I do appreciate desingers expert choices of go-togethers. I was happy when I discovered there existed 'lines of fabric'! I love going to fabric store to find perfect fabrics to go with what I already have.

All of the above. I've never made a quilt solely from one line of fabric, but I often buy two from the same collection and then mix in what ever I like with it, with no regard for the manufacturer or collection. I might add from my stash, which means it could older (more mature?) fabric or it could be something else I bought at the same time in the store. That's the beauty of quilting - you can do it any way you want!

Rarely do I buy multiple fabrics from a specific line on purpose. There have been times I have regreted not purchasing other fabrics in a line as sometimes finding compatibles can be the "needle in a hay stack" search.

AMEN~!!:D

Besides which, for me, a great part of the fun creative process is doing my own color/print/pattern work....otherwise I'd feel like the quilt wasn't really "mine".:(

Jan in VA

I buy whatever fabric strikes my fancy- usually I buy by color and pattern. I am not a huge fan of precuts and FQs are the only precuts I buy. I cut my own jelly rolls, charms, etc.

Anita

Since I love batiks, I just buy what I like. There are really lines like in regular cotton fabric. For other cottons, I rarely use all of a fabric line. Even with a quilt that I just finished, the majority was the Nature's Christmas by Moda, but I also threw in some Stonehenge fabric for the sashing and binding because none of the fabrics in the line were going to work well for a definitive sashing. I used the Stonehenge for the binding as well because it made it look like an extension of the sashing (there are no borders on this quilt).

I just heard form an quilting teacher that you should choose at least 1 fabric from that is not with a "line" of fabric/colors. That way your quilt will "POP"

Great visual! You made my day!

I would have to agree with the majority of people who have answered. 98% of the quilts I make are scrappy and I draw upon my fabric collection that spans 40 years. It doesn't bother me a bit to put a batik next to a Civil War reproduction if the colors and values work for that particular quilt.

I do think that the collections of fabric can be very helpful for newer quilters who haven't amassed a stash yet or who are less confident about their color-choosing abilities. And for those who don't prewash, precuts do save time -- there is something to be said for being able to come home with your goodies and immediately start sewing! I know a couple quilters with small children who honestly don't have the time to do much prep work before they sit down to sew ...

Never have bought a line of fabric or precuts, except FQs. I buy sale fabric almost exclusively so my stash is mostly serendipity but all of my quilts are designed from it. I think that is a reflection on the size of my stash, not on my preplanning. The one thing I do concentrate on is buying blenders, the focus fabrics are easy.

Quite frankly, and with a red face, I will admit I have no idea what "lines" are in my stash. I do love seeing those projects that are made from a single line, but I do think that similarly pleasing combinations can be made by going "across the lines." ;o)

I prefer to chose my focus fabric then collect other fabrics to go with it. That way the quilt is truly mine -- no one else would ever chose the same fabrics so mine is a "one of a kind".

I also don't buy any particular line. I buy what I like and bring it all home and pre-wash. They all get the same treatment. I only buy for myself and family. I just got a box of clothes the other day from relatives who dropped used clothing off to my sister's and she sent it to me. I left her money to ship. My fabric comes from varied manufacturers such as Land's End, JCP, Sears. Get my drift? So much in agreement with ghostrider.

It totally depends on whether or not I like the line. If I like something else in the same line, I'd use it. If not, I'd seek other coordinating fabrics. I rarely want to use all the fabrics in a line.

I totally agree. Whenever I buy charm packs or even look at them online, I generally find I only like about a quarter of the fabrics. I can't imagine forcing myself to use only fabrics from one line, unless I happened to like all of those fabrics.

I love to look at the fabric lines, but my pocket book says you can't go there. My stash is not big, I like to order the scraps from the Fat Quarter shop (12lbs box) and save a certain family of colors till I have enough to make something. I have bought several Fat Quarters of a fabric line and then go from there. As long as it matches I'll use it. Only one time I can think of I bought several fabrics of one line thinking my daughter would love this. It's still on the shelf, lol, and I've borrowed from it already. I do like bright colors for kids, and Riley Blake has several in which I'll use several of his lines. For the most part, If I like it, I"ll get it. If I love it, I'll get several. Uniqueness is very important to any craft, I'm happy to know we're all unique. I'd hate to see the same ole blah fabrics in quilts. Happy
Quilting.

If my eyes love it, I will get some. I like lots different colors, and I enjoy seeing them in person, but recently have starting buying online. I have been very happy with what I've received. As far as which companies, I love looking at Kaufman but do not often see it online.

I normally buy different fabrics based on feel and sight. There are different manufactures and designers that I normally gravitate to because I like the feel and styles. For example fabric made by Bentarex, designed by Debbie Halvorsen are groupings I like.

I participated in a swap where we made blocks using Aspen Frost fabric. Each swapper chose the pattern for their block. We all used the same fabric grouping. The blocks made a beautiful quilt. It was not a line I would have normally purchased several fabrics from, but after seeing how the other swappers used the grouping I was very pleased we all used the same grouping.

There have been a lot of replies here, most seem to be in favor of not using a single line. I will admit that I've never been a big fan of "scrappy" quilts but I think that's because it really kills my OCD-ness that requires a certain amount of order. My butterfly quilt, though sort of scrappy looking, really wasn't, because I did choose very specific fabrics, albeit a lot of them, to go with the focal fabric.

I agree with the person who said that a single fabric line speeds up the process, and I tend to use a line when it comes to the novelty prints - for example, the Dr Seuss quilt I'm working on, or the Peanuts quilt I am collecting fabrics for my SIL. However, I do try to work in other fabrics as well, usually blenders. I didn't do a very good job of that with the Dr Seuss quilt and as a result, I'm not as happy with it as I would be if I had; I think there's just too much going on with it. I will be making a second quilt, however, and I'll definitely be working in more blenders on it.

So I guess that makes me a hybrid quilter? I do like pre-cuts because they're fast, but I almost always mix them with other fabric. However, I'm not reliant on pre-cuts ... I often will pull a focal fabric and put something together based on color and scale. I don't have a really large stash, so I'm still buying fabric on an "as needed" basis, though I am trying to build up my stash (how many women here can claim to be actively working to build a stash? LOL). Most of what I have are things I bought ages ago and never used. I need more of those things because I've managed to pull together some really nice quilts the last few months from the stash I have.

The fabric lines can be very pretty together, but then I feel the choices are someone else's creativity, not mine. I tend to buy what I like and put together what looks good to me, regardless of manufacturer. Last spring I put together a baby quilt for my niece. I pulled a focus fabric (from my stash) that was jungle animals in rainbow colors (Moda Silly Safari). I had a pack of FQ that were blenders in rainbow colors and some white with colored dots to make pinwheels. Then, looking for binding fabric, I found 2 FQ from the same moda line. It was a coincidental that I had them but they looked good and I used them. My niece still had a one-of-a-kind quilt.

Does "Goodwill" count as a fabric line? I buy a lot of smaller pieces at thrift stores if they catch my eye and I think I can do something with them. There are a lot of never used scraps and small yardage pieces of fabric to be had in thrift stores. Sometimes the jelly rolls and other precut stuff looks good to me and I can see the advantages of using them but the hunter-gatherer part of me enjoys the process of finding different fabrics I can put together. I think it would get boring quickly if I limited myself to a single line of fabrics for a quilt. I like paying on average maybe $1.00 a yard for my fabric as well.
I do buy new too. Sometimes that's the best way to get the right fabric in the amounts I need.
Rodney

I have never bought or used pre-cuts and only once have purchased fabric that came from the same line. I buy and use fabric that speaks to me. I also have some projects where I collect fabric over time. I'm just finishing a quilt that used car themed fabric for my husband. It wasn't easy to find that wasn't juvenile and took me several years and numerous quilt shops in my travels to get a nice selection. Same for a music themed quilt project. I also can't resist 1930's reproduction fabric so have quite a collection of that that I use in different projects.

I learned to quilt when there were no fabric "lines". There were plain colors and prints, period. You matched them up to suit yourself, often using from your stash or trading with family or friends. I don't care much for the fabric precuts because I agree that there are fabrics in them that I would likely not choose to use. I also am trying to use from my stash as it is a big one. I use what I like with no regard for specific lines or brands of fabric.

I seem to be buying charm packs a lot lately. There is certainly a variety of fabrics in them, but inevitably there are a few pieces I just plain don't like. While they may indeed "go" with the others, I just don't like them! I take them out and put them in a box. Maybe one day I'll use them for something, but, for right now, they can stay in the box. Even if a fabric does "go," why use it if you don't like it?

I think we are talking about two different concepts here. When you speak of a fabric line you have a group of fabrics that the designer intended to coordinate because of similar colors (same dyes) and a variety of scale and design to enhance a central design. Lines of fabric can come with many designs in a single colorway or the designs can come in several colorways. However, fabric bundles, frequently fat quarters, are a group of fabrics chosen at random that just seem to go together because of color, scale, etc. but come from even different brands. This is similar to what you would do if you choose your own grouping. Some of the effort is done for you. Just yesterday I took apart six of these bundles and put them into my stash by color because I found that they just sat there all tied up with their pretty ribbon and I didn't use them as a group.