Ribbon and Stars: 1st Edition
Fabric Selection
Submitted by Lynda Hackney
1. Sometimes it helps to pick a theme for your quilt
Picking a theme can direct thoughts about what fabrics you would like to choose for your quilt. For example, the Ribbons and Star quilt could be made for a grandson who is enthusiastic about cars. A car print fabric could be fussy cut for the center of the star blocks. The rest of the colors could be picked using the colors in the car fabric. The ribbons moving around the star blocks could be the road. Another example would be having a theme of Autumn. The background could be a dark, rich tone on tone burgundy. Then using burnt orange, gold, and a blue would coordinate with that theme.
Do you want a traditional quilt, a modern quilt, a subdued quilt, a happy quilt, a quilt for a young child..... Keep your theme in mind when looking at all the wonderful fabrics available.
2. What do you want to be the focus area?
When your quilt is complete, what area of the quilt do you want people to look at first. In this quilt, would it be the star points and center, the ‘path’ that intertwines between the points, or the ‘mountain’ blocks on the outside edge of the quilt? If you think that the outside mountain blocks are too prominent in this quilt, they can be toned down by reducing the color contrast with the background fabric.
When you decide what the focal point should be, use your focus fabric. A focus fabric is the ‘bride’ in the quilt. The other fabrics are the ‘bridesmaids’. So, the focus fabric should stand out from the other fabrics. It can be brighter, darker, more intense, or more patterned, just something that draws attention.
3. Determining value differences in the fabrics
This quilt requires a background, a dark, a medium, and a focus fabric. We tend to choose medium value fabrics, so how can we determine if we have good value contrast in our fabrics? Take small amounts of your chosen fabrics, and use your printer to copy them in black and white. You will see immediately if you have good contrast. Or put them on your design wall, stand back and squint, do they all blend into one color? The ribbons between the star blocks need good value contrast to have an inter-twining effect.
As we all know, there are no rules in quilting, and we are lucky to not have any quilt police. Any method by which we choose colors and fabrics is correct. That is one of the joys of quilting.
Fabric Requirements
Provided by Krista Zaleski
