For some of us, the only way to get fabric is to purchase it online from a reputable online quilt shop.  There are times when we will choose fabrics for a quilt project from a single quilt fabric designer’s colorway….but, there are also times when I feel the need to mix and match the fabrics I want to use from more than one designer’s collection.

(queue the theme music from the Twilight Zone)

What I am sure many folks don’t think about is that there are probably no two computer monitors that have the exact same settings – unless they never changed them from the factory defaults and someone else has the same exact computer that you do.  And the quilt shops are (usually) relying on the fabric manufacturer’s images – which adds another layer of issues.

Let’s use a recent example to sort this problem out – I want four fabrics for a quilt.  I begin shopping online for what I’d like to use in the quilt.  Remember, four fabrics.  I find a couple of fabrics I like out of a collection but the others just aren’t doing anything for me, so I click around on the quilt shop’s website, looking for fabrics that match and also catch my eye.  If I am able to save the fabrics to my computer, I can compare them to each other in an image program to make sure they truly match (though I know most consumers aren’t as geeky as I am and don’t have the luxury of image programs for comparison).  It ‘appears’ that they do, so I order them.  When I get the fabrics, I notice that one of them is not going to work – too bright for the quilt design I have in mind.  Then I have to go to my stash and see if I have a fabric that will work better.

Here’s the four fabrics I chose, direct from the website’s images of them:

If your eye is as good as mine, these four fabrics should go very well together – the companion fabric colors are all found in the focus fabric design.  Unfortunately, when I laid them out on my cutting table (to look at, to pet and to make sure they’ll work with my pattern design), I realized one of the four was just too bright for the muted colors of the other three.  Can you guess which one just by looking at these images?

If you guessed the green tonal polka dot one, you would be correct.  Luckily, I had a yard of a muted yellow that worked perfectly with the other three fabrics so I put the tonal green in my stash for use on a future quilt or quilted project.

But, this leads us back to my original problem – how can we safeguard ourselves against purchasing fabric online when the image colors don’t exactly meet our expectations when the fabric shows up?

• One solution could be to go to a local quilt shop and find the fabrics you want, write them down and then go purchase from your favorite online shop.
• If you do not have a local quilt shop within an easy driving range, try ordering a fifth fabric instead of JUST the four you need.  This way, you will have the option of using one or the other if one does not meet your expectations.
• Try going to a different computer, if you can.  See if the images are the same or different in appearance on different computers.
• If all else fails, call the quilt shop and ask them if the four fabrics you chose go together, most online quilt shops would be happy to help you with your fabric choices.

I’ll reveal the final quilt top once I have completed it – but at this point, I love three of the fabrics and with the fourth one from my stash, the quilt is coming out EXACTLY as I’d envisioned in my head!