What was I thinking?!
 

So I'm trying to work from fabric in my stash and had this collection of Asian prints that I bought on spec at a "great" sale. ;) So I pulled it out today to have a look and figure out what to make with it and I've been contemplating this for sometime. Ugh! I bought this fabric probably about 7 years ago. In isolation, each print has its appeal. Together? Not so much. In this pile, there are 19 yards of fabric not counting the white off to the side that I bought at a later date and pulled out today to see if that would give me ideas if I added it...its 4 yards, but a nice neutral, so not worried about that piece. The red piece has a really nice peacock printed on it which would make a great feature...but that's all that's coming to me. Any ideas? I've been trolling Pinterest and there are a lot of fantastic quilts but haven't settled on one. I also think, looking at the fabric, there are too many large scale prints, and too much green for my taste, so may just pare down the selection and work with fewer of these and add some smaller scale prints or solids.

Thanks for listening... Suggestions welcome!

http://www.robertkaufman.com/quiltin...moons/#color:1
Asian screen pattern
Through The Window Quilt Pattern
Japanese Lanterns
http://www.benartex.com/kanvas/fabric-gallery.html/?collection=1516

Maybe the Hanging Gardens quilt pattern by Cozy Quilt designs. I have this pattern but haven't made it yet and I was thinking of using Asian prints. https://www.quiltingboard.com/webkit...2C14/imagejpeg

you could make kimonos https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...ian-quilts.jpg

if you want to cut the pieces smaller, this would work https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...ese-quilts.jpg

If I count over four down from the top, the remaining fabric pieces look as if they would go together (perhaps excluding the last light one and maybe the fifth one that looks likes it's a different color way of a print further down). Maybe there's a common color that would tie them all together. I hope this makes sense. I'm not operating on a lot of sleep right now.

Can't help you, but just wanted to say it's beautiful fabric!

I did a Japanese lantern quilt with similar fabrics. Each lantern stands alone against the background. It was in a book by Alex Anderson. Your fabrics would look great.

I think you are on the right track about too many fabrics to put all together. Edit the fabrics into working collections and then add some solids to create new selections.

For example, let's see how the second fabric (red print bird) plays with the last pale blue/ silver one. Lay just those two together to get an idea if you like them.

Try the first black/purple flower print with the 3rd (purple and black print) and 4th prints (purple and green). Take a picture of just those fabrics and see if you like them. In other words, take the extra fabrics off the table when looking at the edited selections.

Adding either a solid or a very small print into the mix will help add balance.

Good luck and have fun letting those fabrics play!

I did the Hanging gardens quilt that Quiltnan was referring to. I did it in Batiks as that is what I had but the original pattern was in oriental fabrics. Won't use up much of your stash but is is fun to make and beautiful. Love, Love love the grey.

I think the fabrics are pretty - but not all of them together.

Oh, great thread - I have the same dilemma with 30 yards of Hawaiian fabric I have collected on a couple vacations. Gorgeous fabrics, but a lot of large prints and they really don't "go" together, for the most part.

I'm trying to pair a lot of them with solids and do simpler patterns, lately I've been paging through my mountain of old quilting magazines, looking for good 2 or 3 fabric patterns suited to large prints...not finding a whole lot.

1st fat quarter of the quarter called Olivia's quilt found on Margaret Leuwins Quilting Facebook group. It would show off the beauty of each fabric.

I have no ideas for you as I am certainly not creative. When I see a bunch of fabric I love I call on my BFF and she can visually help me every time. You have beautiful fabrics and I am sure someone on this board will come up with a fantastic idea for you.

Ha! I thought of the same, except I was thinking of human sized!
Some of these could make a nice dressing gown kimono, should you have enough.

What about Japanese fans on a black background?

All of your Asian prints have a green tone that is similar in color. Maybe that would be a good choice to add some harmony as sashing, or any other use to separate the prints? May also need to weed out any that do not play well.

Maybe this pattern will work?

http://www.mccallsquilting.com/mccal...To_China_Block

It is a fee download.

Thanks everyone for your feedback! Found some great free patterns following some of your links and came up with a few more ideas... Got a chance to play around with the fabric a little this afternoon and came up with a couple of combinations I don't hate :). Got some more ideas for design, and spent the rest of the day trying to get familiar with EQ7 (that I've owned for several years...are you seeing a trend here? :D). Still working on the provided lessons, but I am determined to figure this out! I really like designing or playing with existing quilt designs and hope EQ7 will help with that more efficiently than graph paper and coloured pencils! Anyway, here are a few more pics with my edited fabric combinations. Once I come up with a quilt plan, I expect I'll have to pick up more fabric to flesh it out. Don't hold your breath for a pic of a finished quilt just yet ;o)! Cheers!

I think the above picture looks nice.

Yes! I like what you've put together in the last picture of fabrics. Good harmony in the colorway, scale, contrasts of value.

I like the contrast of solid(ish) black with Asian prints, and I think you can come up with a simple block pattern that will work with all the prints you have, if you want to use them all. I would make a sampler using a couple of the prints on a black background with black sashing, but then I love a mix of colors.

One reason I have pretty much stopped buying material without a project in mind, is because of what I call the "yuck" factor. I have bought too much material with no project, pulled it out at a later date and wondered what I was thinking when I bought it.

I made the Hanging Gardens quilt from Asian fabrics and it turned out wonderful.

I would separate them and do several projects. They are all very beautiful, but, I agree that together it is a bit overwhelming to try to come up with one pattern to use them. I definitely see the three on the left used as a bigger pattern - the red as a main fabric in a top (you might be able to use fabric #4 with it) and the two with blacks used in a pattern with several jewel tone fabrics. I would then use the 2 'round' floral together and the 2 'hourglass' together. Then you would have 4 different asian tops - the more the better! Please post pics of whatever you choose to do, I'm sure is will look wonderful.

I really like the idea of using the large peacock print like a panel. It shows off the beautiful fabric as well as showcases the peacock. If this were mine, I might try playing with some pieced blocks using the other Asian prints and a common background (maybe the WOW) to surround the peacock using a solid fabric as a sashing to anchor it all like a solid in red or black or purple. The idea of Fan blocks sounds really neat. Again I would use a solid or a fabric that reads solid as the alternating blades of the fan. My current project I did something like that.

Like you, I have a lot of different Asian prints. Here are some ideas of how I have used them and resulting scraps:

https://www.quiltingboard.com/pictur...c-t207883.html


https://www.quiltingboard.com/pictur...r-t189285.html
https://www.quiltingboard.com/pictur...n-t219655.html

https://www.quiltingboard.com/pictur...g-t275921.html

Thank you felinefanatic for posting your Asian fabric quilt projects. I remember seeing some of those and it was a great reminder of your beautiful work and I like your ideas for ways to use the fabric. I really like the circles one and your clam shell log cabin quilt. Clam shells or fans were right at the top of my list.

Feline Fanatic, your quilts are gorgeous!!
I love all of Kwiltr's fabrics, and can't wait to see what you come up with!

Beautiful fabric.

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I didn't get a chance to title these tops that I just finished....the 1st is no pattern, the 2nd is called Kitchen Window by Elizabeth Hartman......

I think this one might work with some of the fabrics you have....https://backporchdesign.com/walk-in-the-city/

Watson