How to Pick Fabric to Make a Quilt

How to pick fabric to make a quilt is part of a free online beginners quiltmaking course, if you would like to join along please sign up for the newsletter, details here.

For me, picking the fabric for a quilt is the most fun part of the process, which is probably why I have more fabric than finished quilts. When you also have this dilemma you’ll know, you too have the quilting bug!

If you are new to quilting and fabric you may want to start with this post all about quilting fabric here.

Picking fabric for your quilt should be a fun process, so try not to get too hung up on your fabric choices. As long as you love the fabric you have chosen, that is all that matters. It’s your quilt and your piece of sewn art.

I am going to teach you how I pick my fabric. I’m sure there are all sorts of formulas you can use, but I get along quite nicely using just a few basic rules and tips.

Head to your local fabric store, this might be Hobby Lobby, Joanns, or a quilting shop. If you are going to one of the first two you need to make sure you buy 100% quilting cotton, it can be a little confusing, and fabrics do get mixed up in the bigger department stores. If you are going to a quilting shop, it will be all organized nicely in designer collections and by color.

START WITH A FABRIC YOU LOVE

The most important rule to picking your fabric for your quilt is starting with a fabric you love – this is going to be your star fabric. Once you have a fabric you love, you can work from there. It’s ideal if the fabric has at least three colors, this will allow you to add other fabrics quickly. Because it ties all the fabrics together, you may want to use double of this fabric in your quilt.

Using the fabric pictured above I can now use the same tones of purple, green/aqua, white.

FIND OTHER FABRICS THAT COMPLIMENT YOUR STAR FABRIC

Once you have the fabric you love – your star fabric – start setting aside any other fabrics that may work.

Ideas on how to find more fabrics are as follows:

FIND FABRICS THAT BELONG TO THE SAME COLLECTION

Quite often you will find that the fabric you have picked is part of a collection, it will have a range of other fabrics that work perfectly with it. For example, it might be the same design but another color, or it might be a completely different design but exactly the same colors. These fabrics are all designed to work together. This is particularly true when it comes to designer fabrics that you can find online or in specialty quilt shops.

FIND FABRICS THAT COULD WORK

Find any other fabrics that you think will work. Don’t be fussy at this stage, take the fabric you love and hold it up against any of the fabric that could work, if it has potential, set it aside.

DECIDE ON WHICH FABRICS YOU LIKE TOGETHER

Now you have gathered all of your fabrics for consideration, you can work out which to keep and which to discard. Keep in mind how many fabrics you may need.

To help you decide which fabrics to go with, there are a few more things to consider.  

CHECK YOU HAVE A RANGE OF SCALES OF PRINTS

It’s important that you don’t have all the same scale of prints, unless of course, this is part of your design. Ideally, you will have a range of scale of prints, for example, little polka dots and large flowers. Having different scales adds interest, depth, and contrast to your quilt.

It’s important to note that the scale of the print should make sense with the size of the fabric pieces you are cutting, for example, you don’t want to use fabric with a very big scale when you are using it for small pieces, this would lose the essence of the print.

PICK DIFFERENT SHADES OF THE SAME COLOR

Add different shades of the same color, you might have purple and want to add two or three shades of the same purple. You will soon know if it’s not the right shade because it won’t sit well with the other fabrics.

A NOTE ON DESIGNER FABRICS

Designer fabrics come in collections that go perfectly together, which takes a lot of the guesswork out of picking your fabrics. You do have to pay a premium for this, but designer fabrics are almost always better quality than in chain store fabric.  

Below is an example of a fat quarter set from Free Spirit. You can see that it all works beautifully together and they have incorporated a lot of different colors which will make a fabulous quilt.

MORE QUILTING INFORMATION

This post is part of an online course to learn quilt making, to find out what tools you need click here.

To find out more about my free online quilting course click here.

Thanks for popping by my blog!

Stacey x