Fruit From My Hands

As mentioned in a previous post, I’ve signed up for a quilt class and I’m pretty excited about spending a day sewing.  Now that I have signed myself along with my mother up for the class, the rush to select the perfect fabrics has begun.

I don’t know if other quilters are like me or not, but I’m pretty picky about my fabrics, textures and color combinations.  I see photos all the time on Instagram of quilters who have a stack of fabrics that they have “pulled” for their latest project.  I can’t go to my stash and pull the perfect fabrics and start cutting right away.

Here is my process:  I go to my stash and pick a few possible coordinating candidates.  I usually have one particular piece in mind before I start.  I start pulling fabrics that will possibly match that focal piece.  I take these pieces and then arrange them how they will appear in the quilt.  I fold and tuck and stack until the correct proportion of fabrics show and then I lay this “stack” in a prominent place in my house.  And then I let it lie for a while as I walk by it, sit near it and watch television while glancing at my fabrics during commercials.  Occasionally, I will decide I want to try another arrangement.  Many quilters use a design wall.  I use my living room sofa.  My design wall is tucked away in my sewing room and I never walk by it.  I want to study on this for a while, glance at it from across the room, and see if the whole combination works for me.

The combination above (pardon the poor photo) is part of my plan for the upcoming quilt class.  I’ve changed the arrangement a little by replacing the large floral print with another less obvious print.  But, at this point, I’m happy with it.  That is…..until my mother called.

I had a nice set of black, white and red fabrics pulled for this quilt until I visited her house.  She pulled this blackberry fabric combination out of her stash, thinking the purple would appeal to me.  She was correct and boom, I dropped my red and black fabrics and have moved on to this purple.  It was like dangling a carrot in front of a horse.  I fell for it.  I had almost settled on this combination and then she called me.  “I have some more purples for you to look at and try”, she tempted me.  And I bit.  She knows me too well.

So my debuting and arranging and re-arranging fabrics will continue for a few more days.  That is part of what makes it fun.

Do you just pull fabrics or do you audition and debut like I do?