Thoughts About Quilting, Part 2

Choosing Your Colors and Layout

This step requires more thought and preparation than any other. I spend weeks sorting through my fabrics to make sure I have the perfect color combinations before I begin a quilt. It is always best to pick a color palette and stick to it. Two-color quilts are the easiest to buy for by far, so if you are new to quilting, that's definitely something to consider. But, if you have lots of scrap fabrics that you would like to make into a quilt, it's still fairly easy to get a pretty color palette going. When you are working with scraps, remember to keep your fabrics in the same color family. If most of your fabrics are pastel, sort out the dark colors. If most of your fabrics are dark, rich tones, sort out any bland or pale colors. When you have all your scraps sorted, it's time to go shopping!
This week, I'll use a nine-patch block as an example. It is the easiest quilt block and a great one for beginners. All the blocks are constructed in the same way, but repeating two fabric patterns:

Prints on the outside, prints on the inside. I prefer to have a print and a solid in each square. When you shop for fabrics, try to find solids which bring out the a color in each of your prints. Then, if you have any solids, try to find prints that work well with them.
When you have all your fabrics chosen, the next step is to choose the layout. The nine-patch can be lain out many way and each makes a dramatically different quilt. My blue quilt repeated the same square over and over, so laying the squares side by side created an interesting pattern. You can hardly tell where on block ends and the other begins!

My spring quilt used an Around-the World pattern. The blocks are arranged in a diamond shape from dark to light to dark to light again. It's a more complicated layout.
This quilt uses a diagonal layout. See how the same block travels diagonally across the quilt? This would be a good pattern for a beginner.
The simplest layout of all is to sew lattice strips between each block.

Like I said, this is my favorite part of quilting, so have fun with it! If you have a dark fabric that you really want to work into a pastel scrap quilt, throw in a few more darks to balance it out and try different fabrics until you make it work. It's your quilt after all - your fabrics, your memories. With a little planning, you turn any stockpile of miscellaneous fabrics into a beautiful quilt!