I'm a color person. I love to play with and mix and match colors. So when get started on a quilt I get the colors I want to work with in mind and the design/block choices go from there.

Where do you get your initial inspiration from?

JAQ

I also start with fabric that I like together. Eventually the fabric tells me how it would like to be made up!

I mostly get inspiration from the QB, the problem is I want to make every quilt I see on here.

I almost always pick my colors first and then my pattern. I know this is backward to the "norm" but after making a lot of quilts, I have gradually changed over.

When I taught Beginning Quilting 101, the participants all made "Trip Around the World" quilts, lap size. They needed 5 fabrics. I had them pick a fabric they liked and then to quickly pick more fabrics to go with what they liked. They might pick out 10 or more fabrics. Then start narrowing done, looking at a distance. At times they might even eliminate their original focus fabric.

Picking fabrics is the most fun part of quilting. Enjoy the process and you can always ask for help in the quilt shop.

Barb

I, too, start with fabric, then look at another's quilt photo and then make my own pattern and build it as I go. I have tons of books and magazines, but I rarely follow the written directions, too boring.

I see a pattern that I want to try and start looking for fabric that will accomodate it.

I start with the fabric. Most of the time I just buy because it 'calls to me', then eventually I find a pattern that fits perfectly. Just getting back from Hawaii, I have several pieces (I know - where are the pics???) of wonderful oriental designs. One is going to be valances for the gazebo.

I start with the fabric I have first. Next a pattern and lastly add extra fabric. A year ago I decided to buy fabric only if absolutely necessary. I have stuck to this decision and my stash has decreased. When the year is up I will treat myself.

I almost always start with fabric. (My fabric shopping is entirely dependent on my mood. Any success I have finding great fabric at a great price is entirely dependent on luck.) If I see a pattern/quilt that I really want to make, I mentally make it with fabrics I have in my stash. If I have most of the fabrics I need (and enough yardage) and they truly do look good in that pattern, then I usually need to make another trip (with my envelope of fabric snippets) to the fabric store for whatever pieces/colors I'm lacking.

However, I have on occasion had an attack of "I MUST MAKE A QUILT LIKE THAT!!!!!" and have had nothing in my stash that was right, so had to buy all the fabrics to make it.

It can be from one piece of fabric, I love the colors used in it. A photograph may inspire me, a picture of another quilt, a particular pattern... I don't find it hard to get inspired LOL I see quilts everywhere I look :wink: