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Finding the perfect fabric...

16 years ago

Hi,

I went to a little quilt shop yesterday (the 20% off everything sale drew me in). I was looking for a cream tone-on-tone to use around all of my bright and bold Grandmother Flower Garden flowers. Well, I found an interesting tannish possibility but there wasn't enough. After a stroll around the shop, I pulled about 4 bolts and tried the first one. Yippee! That was the one! It is a tea dyed looking fabric with little white flecks. Kind of on the yellow side. I never, never would have thought that it would work but boy, it tied everything together. Even some of the flowers that I thought I'd have to save for something else worked on it. (I will try to have my DS help me post a picture later). I could not wait to get that fabric washed and cut out.

Do you have any similar stories where you 'found' a perfect fabric that you weren't really looking for?

:)Kelly - NH

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Comments (6)

jennifer_in_va
16 years ago
I have a story like that!

I was working on this dresden plate quilt for my friend. It was an incomplete top started by her grandmother (my friend was about 5-6 at the time). Grandmother went blind before she could finish it and nobody else quilted. [At some point someone must have tried since there was one whole row of blocks on different fabric and different size.]

My friend got it from her mom's estate and wanted me to finish it so she could give it to her one/only neice...the only person tohand it down to.

I took this top with original '30s prints to the store to look for border and backing. Found the 'perfect' fabric for the backing, then searched just a bit more for the border...a basic sage green solid. They just jumped out at me. When I took them to the cutting counter, I found out they were both '30s reproductions from the same line of fabric!

It was kismit! I'll try to find the pictures and post them later!
msmeow
16 years ago
I started a spiral lone star quilt in a workshop in Jan 06 in shades of pale aqua to navy blue & dark green. It took me a long, long time to get the star and the paper-pieced setting squares made, and by then I was thinking all that wimpy blue & green was pretty boring. I still had to make the pp corners and I couldn't even look at any more blue or green. Then I remembered some long-ago art lesson about complimentary colors and used red for the corners and the binding, and BOY did that make a huge difference!

Before corners:
{{!gwi}}

After corners:
{{!gwi}}

Donna
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kelly4905
16 years ago
Wow! Donna that is gorgeous! The red *really* sets off the star.

Kelly, I can't wait to see your finished quilt.

Kelly (Nebraska)
ironkit
16 years ago
Donna - I would have NEVER have thought to put red on that, but it definitely makes the quilt!

My "oh!" moment in fabric was actually with binding, and I haven't finished it yet. I was talking with my best friend's mom, getting help with the backing on a yellow/blue/white quilt, and said that I was going to pull the backing around for the binding. She had an "oh!" moment and went to pull a piece of fabric from her stash - it was dark yellow and blue and just made the quilt pop!

Unfortunately for me, it was just a little scrap, and not enough for binding, but I took it, and my quilt and found something similar at my LQS.

~ Kit
kathi_mdgd
16 years ago
That's gorgeous,i also would never have thought to use red.Great job.
Kathi
lots2do
Original Author
16 years ago
Hi Kelly - I am looking forward to seeing it too! I may be a great-grandmother before it's finished!

I'm enjoying all of your stories and the pictures too. Wow, that spiral star is really something special - love the addition of the red - gives it a nice punch.

Have a great day!
Kelly - NH

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