Part 3: How to choose fabric...from the beginning...making a Table Runner

I can spend hours browsing the fabric at quilt stores or even the online stores. The variety and selection out there is going to blow your mind. It's so pretty...I want it all for myself...my precious. Whoa. Watch it. Fabric can become an obsession. Have fun with it and don't take it so seriously.

Some of the best fabric choices I've made were because I was desperate and just needed something to fill a space. If I am missing a piece of fabric for something I'm working on, I normally do not want to take the time to go to the store...so I scrounge about in my fabric remnants and say a little prayer for something that fits...quite often it's definitely not what I would have chosen...if I had a choice, because it's ugly.  But don't let that worry you too much...the ugly fabrics, believe it or not, don't read ugly...usually... in an entire quilt, they add character and interest.

Be aware though, I have ruined an entire quilt with a single wrong fabric choice, too. So make sure whatever you pick, it fits the image that you're going for. In fact, at the end of this, I'll show you the worst fabric choice I ever made...beware!!! 

How I typically choose a fabric is, I pick my main fabric first.  Sometimes the main fabric is the star of the show and sometimes it's a supporting player.  It's the one you're going to use the most.  You want your other fabric choices to compliment it.  If you'll notice the picture above, these are some of the fabrics I have used in my table runner.  The large piece in the back is my main fabric.  I would say in my table runner, it's a supporting player as many of my other fabric choices are flashier than it.  There's the oranges and the bright greens and the black that all show off a bit more.  But, they all tie into that main fabric and have at least one characteristic of it. 

Be careful with shades and hues of colors.  A forest green fabric, for instance would not have worked here.  It's green...but not the right hue...the greens I have chosen might not match the main fabric exactly, but they still have a lime green similarity to it.

The butterfly fabrics have some different colors that are not present in my main fabric, like turquoise, but they still fit as they are mostly neutral and have many of the same colors. Remember, you don't have to keep everything exactly the same...but similar is good.

You also need to have resting spots for your eyes.  If all you have is a bunch of wild prints...your eyes don't know where to land and what to look at first, so your work reads as confusing. Solid fabrics provide a resting spot as well as black prints and neutrals.  They stand out and your eyes seek these little perches and from there, they look at all the other gorgeous fabrics you have chosen and the pattern you have used.   So, choose some solid fabrics, something with black in it as well as neutrals.  The white trim around each square above also gives your eyes a path to follow.  Your eyes want things to make sense.

Here's another group of fabrics that I think works well together.  I've got the main fabric at the top and all the complimentary fabrics down below.  I would want some more solids besides the red one at the far edge, but overall think this would be very pretty as a table runner.

Alright.  I told you I'd do it...show you my least favorite quilt...all because of one dang blasted fabric...

Here it is, my diamond quilt.  I love this pattern and plan on making another quilt using these oblong diamonds someday...but...I do not love it because of one poor fabric choice.  So, I wondered if you could spot the fabric I hate without my pointing it out to you...Which one do you think it is? 

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Why did I do it?  Why did I pick this fabric?  I was thinking I wanted to keep the quilt feminine because of the frilly, floral prints...saw this and it was on super sale.  In my mind, I was thinking it was pink which would fit and the greens were a good match for the other greens.  But...in retrospect, the red in it and the words and the over all feel of the fabric is all wrong.

Grrrrr...Oh well.  All I can do now is realize this was a learning moment.  I knew as I was sewing these blocks that I wasn't loving this one fabric...but I was too impatient to fix it at the time.  I didn't want to unpick the rows I'd already sewn and didn't want to buy new fabric and...well, there's always a reason, but if you really don't love something.  Stop.  Rethink it.  You want to be happy with your end product.

Remember...picking fabrics is fun!!  Enjoy it.  Choose fabrics you really like...but if you have a spot that needs something, try out a questionable one...you might just really like it....but if you don't...ditch it and find something that really works!

Thanks for reading!

Other posts in this series:
Part 1: The Basics     
Part 2: Measuring and What kind of fabric to buy
Part 4: How to cut fabric without cutting yourself
Part 5: Time to start cutting and pinning
Part 6: How to Pin Properly
Part 7: Let's Press
Part 8: Leaders and Enders

Heather