Now that I have a pattern in mind, which by the way, took me about 2 months to decide on, I start doing color auditions. .Here's how I generally start out with color auditions. First I decide which fabric is the central character, in this case I'm trying to decide if I can work in two different prints that have similar colors.
Running shoes and
Bras!
I pin them on the design wall then rifle through my stash to pull out coordinating colors/prints. Some of these I purchased at the same time as the prints so I knew they coordinated and I knew where to find them among the stash.
Since I'm using my stash there is always the possibility I'll find the perfect color only to find out it's less than a fat quarter which makes me kind of nutty. Why didn't I buy a whole bunch of it when I was shopping? This is where I start to get creative. I pulled more pieces of the same color selections and try them out on the sewing table.
This is supposed to be a "scrappy" quilt. Back when people were making quilts out of necessity they often used bits and pieces of fabric from scraps of old clothes or other sewing projects. I've never been particularly fond of these types of quilts and prefer to have "organized" scrappy quilts. Fortunately, I'm not living out of a Conestoga wagon or a sod house on the open prairie or waiting for a ship to arrive from Europe with a bolt of fabric. If I don't find what I'm looking for in my medium size stash of fabrics here at home I can just run down to the local quilt shop or nearest Joanne's to get what I need.
Before I sew anything I give the pattern a try out with the colors I've chosen like this:
And that's where I left off at the end of the day yesterday. So tonight I might actually get something sewn together! Stay tuned, there will be more coming up this week.
