I've had the privilege of helping several customers with choosing fabric for a quilt and started noticing a trend. Each one of them were working with either a novelty print or a large scale floral type print and were looking for fabrics to go with them. Each one thought that their theme fabric was very busy and they wanted to tone it down and were looking for fabrics that matched exactly the colors in the print and read as solid. I gently laid some fabrics with geometric designs and character that didn't quite match exactly but were in the same color family along with the plain matchy fabrics. They would have nothing to do with those swirls, polka dots and geometrics. They adamantly stuck with their marbles and solids and weren't sure they liked what was happening. One of the customers felt it was the novelty fabric she picked and decided to choose a different main fabric.
This is a common mistake we make but rarely does it work well. You need several fun and lively prints along with a mediator fabric to make your quilt sing on tune. Check out what Kaffe Fassett does with color and prints. Whew!!!! I've made an attempt to give you a visual from my stash below. Not quite Kaffe quality but.... So the next time you are shopping for fabric stretch yourself, be bold and try bolder color, and use several lively prints along with your other fabrics. You just might end up singing right along with your quilt. Do you have any suggestions for fabric choice that works for you?
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