I have to admit, I’m always kind of baffled by a particular kind of blog post I see. They feature an array of beautiful fabrics, recently purchased with excitement and enthusiasm. That part I get! The part I don’t get as well is that many of those posts name a particular pattern the bloggers intend to follow, using said fabrics.
In other words, the blogger intends to use these fabrics to make that pattern.
We all have our own ways to make a quilt, all of them as varied and wonderful as we are.
I’ve bought specific fabrics for a specific pattern once, I think. In 2012 my local guild had a red-and-white challenge. We were to use ONE red fabric and ONE white fabric to fulfill the challenge. I designed my quilt before starting, purchased the red and the white, and commenced.
Red and White Challenge Quilt. Finished April 2012.
Otherwise, all my quilts have been all stash, a combination of stash and new fabrics, or occasionally all new fabrics purchased well before having a specific pattern. In other words, I knew the colors to use, but not yardage needed, and I probably bought several pieces that never ended up in the quilt.
In fact, buying for specific patterns is probably more efficient and more economical than my method. But since I’m usually designing as I go, either for scrappy block quilts or my ever-increasing medallions, I enjoy little surprises at every stage of construction.
Sometimes that leads to frustration, when the little surprise is that I’ve run out of a piece I really want to use NOW! But then I turn to my stash, or the stash held by local quilt shops, and substitute. To me, the variety of fabrics make the quilt interesting, both to build and to behold once it’s done.
Do you choose a pattern and then choose your fabrics? Do you choose fabrics and then choose a pattern? Or do you make your fabric selections as you go, as I usually do? Is it just me?
Catbird Quilt Studio 