There seems to be at least three different school’s of thought for choosing fabrics for a quilt.  One is to make sure everything is matchy-matchy from a single colorway.  Another is to find fabrics from different colorways/designers and the final school of thought is to go scrappy.  I have been on all three sides of that proverbial fence and can tell you that based on my fabric choices, I can tell whether I truly thought I could pull off a quilt design with the fabrics chosen.  Mind you, I’ve also been on the fourth side of that fence when a shop will send me a fat quarter bundle to see if I can make something with just those fabrics in it.  I haven’t failed at one of those tests yet, but my favorite fabric supplier knows enough about me by now that she is careful what fabrics she sends to me based on my preferences.

So, lets talk about fabric choices.  Quite a few years ago, I was working with an online only shop and was purchasing fabric for a special quilt:

“Starfall” Mystery Quilt pieced by TK Harrison, quilted by Mary Kate

Unfortunately, the fabric line did not come with a green fabric that I envisioned  – which meant I had to go through all of the green’s in her online store to find one that appeared to match the fabric line.  Boy-howdy was I so very wrong!  I finally asked the owner to walk through her warehouse with my red and black fabrics to see if she could find a green that was compatible!  She found one and that worked perfect for the quilt.

Let’ me say one more thing that may change the way you purchase fabrics online – no two monitors computer’s set to the same settings for images.  Looking at fabrics can create a mess when you aren’t using part or the entire colorway from a designer.  Ah yes, the online shop wants to make a sale, but (in my case) I do actually make them work WITH me and not against my fabric desires, sad but true!

If I truly want to create a custom quilt based on the preferences from the client, the only way I trust myself to choose those fabrics is to go to a quilt shop.  I do not always have this luxury so I have to rely on my dear friend’s experience and a good eye to choose fabrics for me.

Tonight, I went to put together a baby quilt for an expectant  mom and realized the fabric she sent to me for it was not quite ‘on’ my radar for fabrics.  I even picked them out – but, that goes back to the monitor settings on each computer!

I actually think it’d be a really cool idea for shops to cut 2 1/2″ squares to send to potential buyers, showing them what the fabric they chose would look like.  I definitely know it would help me tremendously!