Lilian Star Quilt Along: Week 1

Lilian Star Quilt Along: Week 1

Welcome to Week 1!

Hello, my friends! I'm so very excited! It's week one of the Lilian Star Quilt Along! If you haven't read the story of this pretty quilt pattern, you can find it here. This week we're selecting fabrics for our quilt. And there's a little, additional challenge each week. Lilian Star Quilt Along Week 1

 

Each week on the blog, you'll find tips to go with each week's quilty task. I even made a YouTube video for each week! There are somewhat different things in the blog post and video, so be sure to check out both. Here's my first YouTube video ever on Color and Scale! If you'd subscribe, you'd make me feel much better about my life choice to go on camera. ;)

As we work on selecting our fabrics, I put together a mini-lesson on color and scale, as well as some tips to make shopping easier. I'm sure your fabric pull with be fabulous! But if you need a little extra help, read on!

Color

Selecting colors for a quilt is sometimes a challenge. Deciding on one color is even tough! Thinking about how you want the quilt to "feel" or the feeling you'd like it to give the recipient (or you!) helps to select the first color. Maybe it's a favorite color. Some people just have a knack to select perfect fabric pull. But a lot of time, perfection isn't needed! You just do what feels right to you. No stress. But if you'd like to learn more on design principles, I can give a few resources. ;)

There's a book I picked up at a local shop: "A Fiber Artist's Guide to Color and Design" by Heather Thomas, that is basically a whole course on which colors match and great design practices, too! It's fantastic! Another great tool is a quilter's color wheel that helps you select coordinating colors. The Dritz Rainbow Color Wheel Selector is great! It comes with instructions on how to create complimentary color schemes, tertiary color schemes...it's just a great little system! I'll go through selecting a complimentary color scheme quilt in the scale discussion.

A Fiber Artist's Guide to Color and Design, Dritz Rainbow Color Wheel Selector

A no-fuss way to ensure colors go together is to buy from a certain collection. Art Gallery Fabrics has a great knack for helping you create effortlessly beautiful fabric pulls. If you look up a certain collection on their wholesale site (keep in mind you need to buy from a retailer who sells their products), like Kismet by Sharon Holland Designs, you'll see they have all the fabrics in the collection, including all their solids that match those fabrics! How great is that?!

But, if you're using fabrics from your stash or heading to the local fabric store, you may need a little extra help. I LOVE color cards. I have Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton color cards as well as Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Solids color cards. You can match them with your fabric at home if you'd like, then take them to the store and use them to find the perfect complement in any lighting. Also, super helpful when ordering online! Woohoo! You can even cut them up into more portable little cards.

Color Cards

 

Scale

Scale is all about balance. :) You may not know what it is about your fabric pull that makes it feel "heavy" or "too light", but this might help. Prints come in large, medium, and small sizes. Here, I have three prints that are large. Could you make a quilt out of just these three fabrics and maybe a nice, solid background? Sure! But watch as I add a couple different fabrics to add balance. 
Large Prints
So I chose all green fabrics from Art Gallery Fabrics. By the way, this is a monochromatic color scheme. All colors from the same green family. Not all the same value, but very green. :) It looks great! But it feels a little heavy. They're all large prints. 
Large and Medium-Small Prints
In the above photo, I added a couple small prints and a medium print. I added a couple neutrals to bring out the lighter values in the large prints. It will balance though, I promise!
Large, medium, and small prints
Here they are, added to our little bundle. How does that "feel"? Maybe a little more balanced out? The mix of different print sizes helps things blend together well. 
I promised I'd show a complementary color scheme...here we go! Since red is right across from green on the color wheel, it's complimentary. I chose a nice, soft, peachy pink to go with it. I chose a little to the peach side because of the off-white tones on a couple of the fabrics. It just felt good. 
Green and Pink Complimentary Color Scheme
I think we're getting somewhere! I threw in a couple solids, which looks great in a bundle. Ready to show them all off together?
Green and pink complimentary color scheme for quilting
Voila! Not too tough! With a couple tools and tips, you can quite simply create a balanced fabric pull. Art is totally subjective so I encourage you to do whatever you'd like with your fabric and don't stress...but, a little study of some basic principles will go a long way, too! 
Next week we get to cut our fabric. I'll show you one of my favorite tools and other tips to help get our fabric ready to sew! 
Thank you so much for joining me on this quilty journey! I'm so very glad you're here with me!

 

 

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