Definitely! I often have an idea of what exactly the "right" fabric is and can't find it. It's very frustrating but often it leads to wonderful results because it forces me to get out of my comfort zone and rethink my approach. Sometimes it means completely changing the color scheme for a quilt. That happened on the little lap quilt I just made for my grandmother. What was originally going to be a sage, terra cotta and robin's egg blue quilt, ended up chocolate, teal and red--and beautiful.

You are making a new quilt, so don't let the old one call too many of the shots--it was a unique creation. Use the original as a guide or inspiration, but also let the new quilt be whatever it needs to be.

I know you haven't asked for suggestions, but my first thought was to ditch the poly substitute and go for the real thing instead--find a lovely raw or dupioni silk and go from there. As talented as you are, I'd be holding my breath to see what you could do with silk as a medium!

With most local fabric sources going out of business, it's increasingly difficult to find what I want locally, and at the best of times, I have to drive almost an hour and a half to the nearest JoAnn's, so I've been turning more and more to on-line shopping. Just for kicks I googled "faux silk" and found some gorgeous fabrics. My on-line shopping experiences have all been great, so I guess I don't worry much about buying that way.

Annie

Sure have, and it can be so frustrating. It is 45 miles to my nearest shop and it isn't a quilt shop, just a Hancock Fabric with limited quilting fabric. If you have a small piece of the fabric left contact some of the larger on-line stores to see if you send them a piece if they can send you some samples to preview. They may charge, but it would be worth it.

beverly

The only time I CAN'T find the fabric perfect for something is when I already have a preconceived notion of exactly what I need. That's a given in fabric shopping as well as clothes shopping.

I have one quilt I want to make myself and incorporate sashiko embroidery into it. I managed to get genuine Japanese print cotton, and also an authentic red print to coordinate with it for the smaller blocks. Black for the sashing was easy, but do you think I could either find a nice indigo (as is traditional with Sashiko) or even a plain old everyday teal blue (which matched the details in the Japanese print)? Nope. Since when do they not make teal blue cotton??????????? I have an icky hospital scrubs green as a third choice. Needless to say, the quilt hasn't been started yet, because I do not want to compromise on the only quilt I have splurged on fabric for myself.

I figure I'll run across the right stuff one day when I'm NOT looking for it. LOL.

I agree with Annie. I have several partial bolts of raw silk, my mother brought back from Japan with us when we returned to the states. It has been used for everything from shirts to kid's clothes to curtains. It's an amazing material, wears like iron and has a unique smell about it, only found it raw silk. If you can justify springing for it, you'd be overwhelmed and satisfied. It abounds online. Not inexpensive, but oh so worth it.

If you can send a small sample of a fabric to Keepsake Quilting, they will try to find what you want. I had a perfect solid red color, but too heavy fabric, so I sent them a 1-inch swatch of the red and another swatch of the desired weight. They found an exact match for the red color in the fabric weight I wanted.
There are also web sites that will search for out-of-print fabrics. Google Fabric Search. You will find www.missingfabrics.com as well as vendors who might be able to help.
BlueBars

I was going to suggest Keepsake Quilting's fabric search too! They do a great job and found a fabric for a friend who ran short on a project. She didn't have a manufacture or any other information and had purchased the fabric 3 years earlier at a fabric outlet! They matched it and found 2 yards of it for her! Give them a try.

Kate

Keepsake is great for cottons, but I doubt they'd have the faux silk that Carole is looking for. Calliope, if you don't mind a print, I found a luscious teal from Moda earlier this month and used it this quilt:

I have picked out the fabrics from my stash which I purchased twenty years ago for a Japanese theme quilt for my brother which never got made. So, I have a good idea of what color I can use for the background. Actually, what I used on the first one would be perfect, but I would prefer to try a different one.

I've decided to send my daughter a sample of the original and, if she can find the time, check out the fabric stores in Austin, where she lives. If she can send some samples, I can see how they work with my other choices. This means I won't be doing anything for a while, but I'm not in a rush; and I will check out some online shops. I can spend some time on designing the quilt for next year's church auction and another wall hanging I have in mind.

I noticed no comment on my other question: Do shops no longer cut you a snip of fabric as a sample? Joann's would only sell me 1/8th of a yard. carole

I've never been to a shop that would give out a sample as you describe. In fact, I couldn't quite figure out what you were talking about. I honestly can't see how they could afford to do so unless they cut a strip off the bolt just for this purpose and then gave away pieces of this. Otherwise, every time they cut off a "snip of fabric" they'd also have to recut the edge of the bolt.

Annie

I have always been able to get small sample swatches in the past. Everything changes I guess. I can understand the economics behind it.

Not sure about now but not too long ago JoAnn's would cut off a snip - there is a store in Austin which carries silk - I have the URL saved, I think, if you need the name. In addition, there is an area in Houston which is heavily Vietnamese - and a one block shopping center called Hong Kong Mall - it has a fabric store and I purchased a beautiful teal blue silk fabric there last year for a blouse. They do have a fair amount of silk but a huge amount of 'blends' (think sari type print fabrics).

Let me know if you want me to go by there and inquire abour raw silk.

Carolyn