Dudley is one of the Artistic Artifacts staff members, always happy to assist a customer with choosing fabrics. She has helped start many talented quilters on their way through her classes. Enjoy her thoughts on fabric selection! — Judy

Guest post by Dudley Shugart

I have been asked many times to teach a class on color theory to help people select fabrics to make a quilt. Since I am not a color wheel user, I wanted to share some of my thoughts on how I go about selecting fabric for my quilts in this post.

First off, I do begin with a quilt pattern I want to use, deciding on two colors, or a particular fabric to build around.

Let’s start with my favorite quilt pattern — Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs. I have used this pattern probably more than fifty times! It is my ‘go-to’ baby quilt and other occasions when I want to gift a quilt.

The pattern calls for six fat quarters to make a baby quilt size. Having made many of these quilts over the years, in my opinion the quilt looks better featuring three different colors (with two different shades or variations of each of your three colors) rather than six completely different colors.

For a baby quilt gift, I usually begin with a fun children’s or novelty pattern or focus fabric, then find a complementary fabric with similar colors to go with the focus fabric. I have examples of some of my Yellow Brick Road quilts included in this post, and pictured here is the one I made for a special little boy, Leo, the son of my Artistic Artifacts coworker Katelyn — her baby shower was dinosaur-themed and she was in love with this focal fabric.

After selecting the first two ‘busier’ fabric patterns, I select two colors that enhance the focus fabric I initially selected. From this point, selecting different scales of print and lights and darks add interest too. As a personal rule, I try never to use the same print twice. Also, I like to not use fabrics from the same fabric collection or line if I can get away with it!

I took a trip through Artistic Artifacts to assemble this example six-fabrics selection that would be the basis of a beautiful Yellow Brick Road quilt. Of course many other quilt patterns, or repeats of your favorite patchwork block patterns, would look great with fabrics like these too.

• I decided to build my selections around this novelty print with a white background: Let’s Get Wild! by Clara Jean is fabric one, pictured above left.
• Fabric two: I liked the lines and dots of The Fallen Seeds Ecru by Gracie Morton.
• Fabric three: Time to pick a green to go with my jungle animals. Visual Vibes by Laura Berringer, Green ended up having great shades to coordinate and I think of this as a tone on tone.

• Fabric four: Another green. After trying out several, I ended up with Hopscotch- Stitched, Pickle. It’s the perfect lighter shade of green to accent the trees in my focus fabric, and the white line pattern has a fun interpretation of flower and leaves.
• Fabric five: Now to bring in black, for contrast. Another Australian Aborigine-designed fabric was my choice: Land of Utopia Black by Anna Pitjara is a beautiful fabric with visual flow.
• Fabric six: The blender line Moonscape by Dear Stella is a real favorite here in the shop — it goes with so many fabrics. Asphalt is a new color choice for us, a nice medium gray.

The three pairs of fabric colors I discussed earlier are, in this instance, white, green, and black. Remember too that variation of print is as important as color for the final effect.

And here’s an additional tip. You’ll know you have a successful combination when you move the fabric bolts or swatches around in order on your cutting table or work surface, and the fabrics still look good together. If you find that you’re considering a fabric that only looks good paired with one other fabric, and/or with a shift in order it stands out, try again.

When Artistic Artifacts staff created their own curated 10 fat quarter cut bundles to sell during our April 28 Facebook/CommentSold live sale event (some still available in our CommentSold store), I expanded the six-fabric idea to create mine.

We were challenged to mix lines and designers, even to incorporate fabrics on sale and to consider bolts that hadn’t gotten enough attention when released, not just the newest arrivals. Here are my thoughts behind my selections.

• Fabric one: Fabric with pink, gold and orange flowers Prickly Pear by Emily Taylor, Flowers)- the design of the flowers is very clear and graphic
• Fabric two: A multicolor fabric with the colors of fabric one (Wishwell: Weather Report by Leslie Tucker Jenison, Sunrise). With this print, those similar colors are a little more blended together.
• Fabric three: the strong pink, yellow and orange weave print (Fresh Picked by Sarah Campbell, Garden Patch Hot). Notice how this is a large-scale graphic print.
• Fabric four: a small print blender featuring yellow dots (Tula’s True Colors, Hexy, Sunshine); this shade of yellow is taken from the original fabric one flowers.
• Fabric five: a yellow-green batik (Island Home Batiks by Natalie Barnes, Woven in Palm), with a design pattern that is more irregular.
• Fabric six: This large bold graphic of flying birds (Murmur by Valori Wells, Hummingbirds, Gold) is the darkest color of the yellow/gold family.
• Fabric seven: Orange with white simple pattern (Natural Affinity, Parquet, Apricot). A very light fabric, this goes with the background of the focus fabric.
• Fabric eight: orange polka dots (Tilda Medium Dots, Ginger) — medium color value; clear, medium-scale print.
• Fabric nine: dark orange random print (Kaffe Fassett Collective Aug 2021, Amaze, Red), which adds a strong, dark influence.
• Fabric ten: black and white dots (Tula Pink Linework, Pom Poms in Ink) — a super strong contrast that adds a pop to the collection. A fabric like this keeps your quilt from looking like it came from a department store!

This is my approach, and it is just one way to explore combining colors. Remember that your projects are yours, so choose fabric you love!

Above, while I focused on the baby quilt size of Yellow Brick Road, the instructions are included to create six different sizes — it’s an easy pattern to stitch and gives you a fun scrappy look.

Creative Mind Chris Vinh has created another beautiful quilt while giving our free pattern Modern Squares (which she designed) an update. Enjoy her guidance in creating your own version! — Judy

Guest post by Christine Vinh of StitchesnQuilts

Finding some special fabric often sparks an idea for a new quilt. I’d had my eye on the “Earth Made Paradise” collection by Kathy Doughty and one day I decided to revisit a pattern design I had used for some shop samples several years ago. As I worked on the project, I made some changes to my initial pattern used for the first quilts I made, which we used in our booth at Quilt Market to showcase fabrics current at the time.

Our updated “Modern Squares” pattern — download your PDF copy — instructs you to pick two feature fabrics, 6 to 8 additional fabrics, and one (1) solid color for your quilt top (border not included). For the feature fabrics, I chose one (1) yard each of Abundance in cool colorway and Budgie Babies, and half-yards of the rest of the Earth Made Paradise Collection. I chose my one (1) yard solid color fabric from the wide variety of Marcia Derse Palette Solids, Cloud (a creamy white)

Following the pattern’s cutting directions, I cut the required squares and strips from the feature fabrics (pictured above). I used the entire yard of the solid for 2-inch strips, and for the half yard pieces, cut two 8-inch squares and then the rest into 2-inch strips.

Having cut all the fabric, I laid out the 8-inch squares and selected two different fabric strips to go with each square, making sure to vary the combinations. There will be some duplication, but variety was what I was aiming for as I played with the options.

The blocks were pieced using the squares and strips using a 1/4-inch seam allowance. I love using my BERNINA Patchwork Foot #97D and the Sew Steady Grid Glider to help in making sure my seams are straight!

I use the full width of the fabric for the strips and trim the extra before pressing at each step of the piecing. This is where a Oliso Mini Project Iron and Felted Wool Pressing Mat come in handy!

While I usually strip piece when sewing patchwork, for this project I made one square at a time, which helped me to keep track of my fabric selections.

In piecing the blocks, it is important to keep the same sequence of adding the strips — first to the left and right of the block, and then the top and bottom. Use the same order/sequence when adding your second row fabric strips.

Following the same order for all squares will make for nicer finished blocks when you piece the quilt together.

Once all the blocks were sewn, I squared them up to make sure they were all the same size.

The next step is to cut each block into four smaller blocks by cutting in half from top to bottom, and then turning to cut again. Using my 12-inch OLFA Rotating Self-Healing Rotary Mat came in handy here — I didn’t have to reposition the pieces as I cut. Following our pattern, you will end up with a total of 92 blocks.

For me, the next phase of laying out the blocks to create the design is the fun part! I find I can get lost for hours repositioning blocks to get just the right layout. I focus on making sure there is a balance of color and pattern, trying not to have similar blocks next to each other. I knew this would be larger than my design wall, so I used the top of our bed to lay out the pieces.

Some may decide to lay the smaller blocks out randomly, but I chose to start with placing four of the smaller blocks from the same large one near the center. I then worked my way out towards the sides and tops, adding partial blocks in some case, only a single block in others, or adding several more ‘complete’ blocks to get a design that was pleasing.

At this point, I recommend taking a picture of what you think is the final layout and stepping away from your design process. Often I see something that stands out in the picture that may need to be moved around to assure a good flow of colors and patterns. This may take several tries, but it is worth the extra effort!

Once I have decided on my layout, I carefully stack the blocks by row. I begin with the top row, with the block that would be located at the far right side placed on the bottom. When I get to the last two blocks for that row, I pin the second block to the first where the seam should be. This helps to keep the blocks in proper sequence. I number each stack with a Post-It, adding an arrow indicating which direction is the top of the block.

I like to sew the rows together as I go along, referring to my photo, in the event that I might have turned a block or not sewn in the right sequence. If it’s necessary, it’s much easier to rip out one row at that point!

For the layout in my sample, there are seven (7) small blocks across each row, and a total of 10 rows. I never fret over left over blocks as they get pieced for use in the backing (see photo at the end of this post)!

At this point, I decided to add a border with a complementary fabric, and chose Dear Stella Moonscape in Burgundy (Moonscape is a favorite blender fabric of mine!). It helped to contain a busy quilt a bit and pulled out colors in the several of the fabrics. I purchased 1-1/2 yards of this fabric, as the remainder would be used to piece my backing.

Above, the completed Modern Squares quilt, designed & pieced
by Christine Vinh, featuring Earth Made Paradise fabric
from Kathy Doughty. Machine quilted by Sue Bentley.

For the backing, I used all leftover blocks, any leftover uncut focus fabrics, and the Dear Stella. My quilt’s binding is from one of my focus fabric. My only scraps from this quilt project fit into a zip-loc bag!

For the final finishing touch, Sue Bentley of SuZquilts added the perfect machine quilting to my quilt, as she always does!

This pattern is a modification of Simply Styled Stacked Square Quilt, a free pattern by Erica Jackman of Kitchen Table Quilting. Visit our previous blog posting to see Erica Jackman’s original version that used precut fabric bundles, a lap quilt that finished to 68 in. x 76 in.

Above, a view of my Modern Squares quilt — I love to piece my quilt backings (they are an improv quilt on their own) and this was a perfect use of leftover fabric squares.