favorite thing ever...fabric selection

My favorite thing about quilting is choosing the fabric.  If I could create stacks of fabric al day long for people to make into quilts, I would never be bored.  I'd go work in a quilt store, except I'd get really frustrated that people wouldn't take my very good advice.   When the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild president sent around an email with a list of talk topics and asked if anyone would choose one for the monthly meeting, I volunteered for fabric selection before the metaphorical ink was dry.  I'm giving the talk at the DSMMQG meeting on July 19th.  Come check us out if you are in the area.

This had made me think about how I choose fabrics and what I plan on telling people about how to choose their fabrics.  I've been thinking I should have a few example stacks to show people.  Yay, I get to play with my stash.  I'm wrapping up my latest project, which I can't show here yet because it's a gift for someone who knows about this blog.  This made me think about what my next project should be.  I need to finish up my grey and yellow bed spread, but before I haul that out, I think I can squeeze in a new pillow for Wee Monsieur.


Since we are trying to sell our house, I've been really good about making the beds and generally keeping things tidy.  The Happy Pirate Pillow is still much loved, but doesn't really coordinate with his room very well.  I'm hoping if I make him a new pillow, then we might be able to put the pirate pillow away until we sell the house.  I pinned a pillow from Pottery Barn Kids with the word EXPLORE appliquéd on it.  I'm trying to decide if I should applique the letters from different fabrics on a solid ground like the pillow, or do stripes of different fabrics with applique letters from one fabric on top.   


Here is the stack I pulled to start. 

When I looked it with the bed spread, I realized the bed spread green was more sage and the blue was more periwinkle than the fabrics I selected.  I edited down to this stack, but the colors still aren't dead on.

Being dead on isn't necessarily the goal, but I'll need to think on this one a bit more.  I am happy with the mix of print sizes and types and I think I did a reasonable job of picking a relatively "masculine" selection of prints.  We'll see where it goes.