I know many of you have made this quilt. My pattern calls for 30 fat quarters. Should they all be different? How many different colors have you used in this pattern? What looks the best? I sure need advise as I would like to make a full or queen size. Thanks

I once used about 42 fat quarters. I'd bought a set of them, I think 36? of Aunt Grace throughout the Year. I added several solids to give the eye a place to rest amid all the patterns. I bordered each one differently. All were loved when gifted. One was a blue border that was piped with red rickrack between teh border and the body, one was with a pink border and gold 1/4" flat piping, another I folded the backing over and made it large enough to serve as a border. Though I could have made a king-size quilt this was vetoed by DH (too retro for his taste). Anyway, I made the blocks in the proportions in the instructions, then just divvied them up into a total of six baby quilts. I guess what I"m saying is it seems anything works but my taste needs a quiet spot for my eye to rest so use a read-as-solid or a solid as one or two or maybe three of the fat quarters

I made one with about 24 different FQ. I made more blocks than the lapsize called for, but used the extra blocks in place of a border. I want to say that all of my fabrics were different, but there may have been 1 or 2 duplicates. My colors were white, greens, and pinks. It finished about 63" and used 49 blocks (7 x 7 layout)

That is a very pretty quilt!

I made one that my hubby picked as a kit. I wasn't really paying attention when he picked it out. Many of the fabrics are the same print in different colors, almost all the patterns are the same scale. When I put it together, I didn't like it. It was very blah. Not enough variance in the scale to be pretty. I've put it aside for over a year now...I'll finish it some day. Maybe some applique will spruce it up. But my heart wasn't in it at the time, so I put it aside for prettier ones.

I'd suggest at least 9 or so different prints, varying the scale of the prints, include some tone on tone or marbles. If you do a Google search and click "images" at the top, you will see a wide variety of samples to inspire you.

This is the one I made with 30 fq. It fits our oversized queen.

That is a perfect example of what I was suggesting with varying the prints...very pretty!

exactly...this one is really perfectly balanced! Great job!

Thanks for the compliments. There were a couple of fq that I wasn't sure about. I thought they might be too bright. But, with the softer ones it all just worked. It is on our bed and it is soothing. Nothing stands out.

Beautiful quilts