I love to make lapquilts to giveaway--either for raffle or for those in need. A fellow quilter that knows of my charity work was cleaning out her cupboards and gave me three bins of Dark fabrics--rust, brown, black, dark tan, and greens. Some plaids, stripes, florals, northwest style, and homespuns. They seem to be 1/2 yard or smaller. They're mostly Moda and are beautiful, but I'm very visual and can't picture what type of pattern to use with these fabrics. I mostly use batiks, brights and baby fabrics. I love the Yellow brick road pattern, but are there better patterns. I want fast. I looked at the Moda website and they had patterns with light fabrics. Hard for me to picture in the dark fabrics. Would love any suggestions!!

You might have to add a light and medium to your fabrics in order to get a contrast...then most any pattern would work.

With the florals maybe you could set a large square (6-8") with a light 1 1/2" sashing. Could set off the florals very nicely. Good luck!

Thanks, I was thinking of a star pattern with maybe a tan background would work.

I use alot of darks. They are great with a really light and then use them in half square triangles. Flying Geese or Ohio Star are two of my favorites. Anything that uses HSTs works well. Jacob's Ladder or a Bear's Paw would be good too.

Here are examples of my work and you can see what I mean

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-28088-1.htm
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-18069-1.htm

These are great suggestions, thanks!!

Maybe a cream muslin to add some light to these?
They would make a beautiful Star quilt :D:D:D

Have you ever noticed that when we are handed free fabric the FIRST thing we think of is: Make a bunch of blocks ....
when the reality is:
we probably have ENOUGH blocks and quilt tops ... we need BACKINGS!

I recently got up against the wall with needing the backing for eight quilts ... I make lap robes that measure (usually) 57x70 inches ... and, after all of this time (15+years), I suddenly discovered that if I have four yards of fabric for backing, I can cut it in half, and use one selvedge to selvedge piece for part of the backing and only have to use 1/2 of the other piece to make more than adequate back ... so, what to do with that extra piece (22x2 yards) ... well, cut it in half, cut other fabrics, in great big pieces, put them together, and viola! Another quilt back!
When I get one quilted, I will post a picture to give you an idea of what the backing looks like .... oh, wait! I will go take care of it ... doesn't have to be quilted ... DUH!
Good idea for your dark fabrics ... BACKINGS! <wave>

How about "Planned Patch Hood" at quilterscache.com

so, the sample I have is only two fabrics, but my DD hasn't been as enthusiastic about my plan as I have been :?
As I come across more pieced backs, I will return, but for today, this is it ... apologies <wave>