Schill93

for a quilt to make, and you are picking fabric from your stash and you have a few fabrics you bought from a particular line that you liked and perhaps got on sale (hence the two or three prints from a line), what are your thoughts on how many other fabrics do you try and put together for making a pleasing and interesting quilt?

Knowing that most lines include approx 20 different prints, do you try to find another 15 or 16 additional prints to go with your initial purchase of two or three fabrics. I know there are quilts you can make with only 2 fabrics, but I am not going there. If it is a scrappy quilt (coordinated scrappy) how many additional coordinating fabrics do you shoot for?

catsden

I don't buy a whole line of fabrics to make quilts. I pick from my stash and if necessary shop for something to go with.

cjsews

I don’t buy a line either. Just because the line was made to coordinate doesn’t mean other fabrics wouldn’t work just as well. I just try to find stash fabrics that look good to my eye.

quiltedsunshine

If it's "coordinated scrappy," then yes, I would try to find another 15 - 20 fabrics to go with it.

dunster

I don't think I shoot for any particular number.

Quiltah Mama

The more of a variety the more of a scrappy look. So, as many that pleases you to achieve the look you are going for.

Iceblossom

There are times (rare) when I buy fabric from the same line to use together, but that is usually more for what I call a planned quilt instead of my usually more scrappy project.

I don't think I can give you an answer, but I think that's one of the great things about quilting is we all get to find our own answer to work for us. Each of us has an internal "makes me happy" (or cringe... try for happy!). Each project has it's own set of rules or constraints. We can emphasize fabrics by putting them together, or keeping them apart.

When I'm looking at my inspiration fabric for a project I look at the amount I have and what I think I need. While I try to keep scrappy, I also try for some balance and consistency. So say I have a bit of a particular red, enough for maybe 5 blocks but that I will need 30 blocks total. I'd want to have at least 6 red, or if I had a lot of little bits, maybe I'd be willing to have 5 of the one I loved, and maybe 3 each of a few others, and then a few more entirely random.

I'm dealing a bit with this right now in my Bonnie Hunter project. Is a mystery and the final has been revealed, but I'm still in progress and it's still a mystery to me!

Mkotch

I don't have a set number either, and sometimes the number is dictated by what I have in my stash. Once a year around my birthday, I go to my local quilt shop for a "spree." The owner gives us a discount of half our age, so the older I get the better the discount! Anyway, I usually buy neutrals to last the year, but I usually throw in a few other fabrics for which I have no plans. When I start a new quilt that's going to be scrappy - and most of my quilts are - I pull one of those fabrics out and then look for things to go with it. That usually ends up being 10 or so different pieces of varying amounts (from FQ to a yard). I also have boxes of 2" and 2.5" squares that are leftovers that I throw into the mix. The Bonnie Hunter mysteries have been heavily mined from those boxes but I didn't do one this past year.

LGJARN52

I very seldom buy a complete line such as a fat quarter pack, but will buy a jelly roll or charm squares and then search my stash for anything else that works with it. My largest scrappy was made entirely from left over charm squares and jelly rolls, had over 500 different pieces in it and is about 102" x 100". The scrappier the better!

WMUTeach

If you want to stick with one fabric line as a guide to matching colors and coordinating colors, do so, but as you see most of us blend fabrics from multiple lines. I will join them. I seldom purchase from a single line of fabric. Occasionally I will purchase a blender if the color is beautifully odd or a color I don't have in my stash. It all depends on the pattern I am using. All of that said, I make primarily scrappy or controlled scrappy quilts.

I guess the final message is you do not NEED to be bound to a single fabric line unless you want to. Therefore the number of fabrics you choose is dependent on the pattern you choose for your quilt.