Last week I blogged about how to choose different fabric textures. This week I want to add to that topic and help quilters to understand how to choose fabrics more effectively.
There are some textures that I NEVER use. These are what Jinny Beyer calls “busy prints”. They are very high contrast. Even though some of my textures fall into these prints, I don’t use them because if you do, your eye will be drawn immediately to them in a quilt.
High contrast prints.
You can over dye these if you have many of them in your stash.
How do you begin? I use several methods to begin to choose my fabrics.
The first method is to use an antique quilt for inspiration.
The layout of this quilt inspired me to use black as a setting.
Here is the quilt I made with this layout, my “Aunt Hattie’s Hexagon” quilt made with the hexagon stamp.
Hexagon quilt made with the hexagon stamp.
The second way to begin to choose fabrics is with a “focus” fabric or “theme” fabric. A focus fabric has many colors in it. I save these pieces for inspiration when choosing my fabrics. Sometimes I don’t even use them in the quilt. 
Love the colors in this fabric.
This piece of fabric I used for my inspiration for my new design, “Poke Berry Baskets”.
Poke Berry Baskets
The third way to choose your fabrics is to save beautiful photos from magazines or calendars. Publishers spend a lot of money to catch your eye with photos. Some of them are so beautiful, they are hard to throw away.
Fall color photo.
I’ve had this photo in my collection for years and have used it more than once to choose fabrics for my quilts. Most recently I used it for my “Mountain Blossoms Pattern.”
Mountain Blossoms
Now, you have your inspiration and you are ready to choose your fabrics. I usually lay out all my fabrics in a row and discard any that aren’t pleasing to me. First I choose my main colors. Then I add lighter and darker values of these colors. I try to use all my fabric textures as well.
Here is a color palette I made for my “Nine Patch Civil War Sampler” pattern. I pasted down a piece of each fabric I used onto a file folder. I don’t usually do this much work as a rule, but needed it for a workshop I was teaching.
Palette for the “Nine Patch Civil War” pattern.
I hope this lesson in choosing fabrics will help you the next time you are making a quilt.
Happy Stitching!