Little Fabric Shop Quilt: Selecting Fabrics

Little Fabric Shop is excited to share our progressive skills quilt! Over the next 10 months, we will be sharing a step-by-step guide to create a beautiful quilt. We’ll start with how to select fabric for your project and move to creating quilt blocks utilizing various quilting and sewing techniques. We will also share how to finish your quilt project with different basting, quilting, and binding options. Whether you are an experienced quilter or brand new, this program will give you lots of helpful information and ideas to create beautiful quilts!

Here is the quilt we will be creating. This month, we will select our fabrics for this project.

PDF Download: Little Fabric Shop Quilt – Fabric Selection

We will be using Cotton + Steel Basics fabrics. We love this blender fabric. It is incredibly soft and has a fantastic weave that is just perfect for quilting. If you would like to use the same fabric, we have created a Little Fabric Shop Fabric Bundle for this quilt.

Here are all the fabric color and yardage quantity details:

There are many options for fabric selection and placement. Choosing fabric can be a little stressful. Quilts take time to make and finding a fabric palette you love is important. There are a few tips and tricks that make finding fabrics that work nicely together easier.

Quilt Coloring Guide

Most quilt patterns will include a coloring guide. This makes a big difference in planning out your fabric colors. By using colored pencils, you can color in the quilt blocks and see how your quilt will look based. Here is the coloring page for Little Fabric Shop’s Quilt.

PDF Download: Little Fabric Shop Quilt Coloring Page

Cotton Fabric Selection

For this project, we recommend sewing with cotton fabric. This natural fiber fabric is easy to sew with and care for. Most cotton fabrics can be washed and dried in a washing machine. This fabric is soft to hand, easy to dye and quite durable. Check-out our Types of Cotton Fabric blog for even more details on this fabric.

Basic Color Theory

Color Theory combines art and science to determine what color combinations will look nice together. In the 1600’s Isaac Newton mapped out the color spectrum into a circle to show the relationship between each color. Colors that mesh well together are called color harmony. Different color combinations will lead to a different color feel. Let’s break this down further.

For a basic color wheel, there are twelve different colors. Red, red-violet, violet, blue-violet, blue, blue-green, green, yellow-green, yellow, yellow-orange, orange, and red-orange. Check out our diagram below featuring Century Solid fabrics from Andover Fabrics.

Primary Colors: Primary colors are red, blue, and yellow. These colors are the “pure” colors and the foundation for creating other colors.

Secondary Colors: Secondary colors are created using different combinations of primary colors. These colors include orange, green, and violet.

Tertiary Colors: When a combination of primary and secondary colors are mixed together, tertiary colors are created. The six colors that fall into this category are red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, and red-violet.

Complimentary Colors: Colors that are on opposite sides of the color wheel. These colors create a high-impact and bold color presentation.

Analogous Colors: Analogous colors are neighbors on the color wheel. They are the three colors that touch each other on the color wheel. This type of color scheme creates a visually pleasing and calming look. Analogous color templates are often found in nature.

Monochromatic Colors: Monochromatic colors use only one color. They are an array of a single hue that is a range of lighter and darker hues from the base color.

Warm, Cool & Neutral Colors: Warm colors include red, orange, and yellow. These colors bring energy, positivity, and brightness to a quilting project. Cool colors are blue, violet, and green. This palette is both relaxing and calm. Neutral colors such as white and gray can be combined with either a warm or cool color palette.

Online Color Tools

There are many, many different tools available online to help you find a beautiful color palette. We have put together a page dedicated to helping you find color combinations and online color generators on Pinterest.

Color Palette Generators: These tools make finding beautiful color palettes easy. We have a few favorites that we would like to share with you. The Coolers color palette generator is our favorite. This color generator is quick and easy to use. You will be able to find beautiful combinations in just seconds. Another favorite of ours is the In Color Balance tool. To use this tool, you will need to translate the page to English. This designer site utilizes pictures to capture color palettes. It is a great place to start when you are not sure where to begin. For even more color generator options, visit our Pinterest Color Generator board.

Color Palette Inspiration: Additionally on Pinterest, we have created Color Palette Inspiration Boards for all the colors of the rainbow, white, gray, brown, black, and the Pantone color of the year – Viva Magenta.

Fabric Scale & Pattern

Fabric pattern and design is also important to consider when selecting fabrics for your quilt project. Here are a few ideas to help make this step a little easier.

Premade Fabric Bundles: Take all the guesswork out of selecting fabrics by buying a premade fabric bundle. Both fabric designers and fabric shops will create a fabric palette that is designed to work beautifully together. We love the Petunia fat quarter bundle by Ruby Star Society.

Build a Palette Off a Single Fabric: If you have a fabric print that you just love, you can create a beautiful color palette based on the colors in the design. The colors do not have to be exact matches as similar color tones work well also. Let that one fabric be the star of the show! The Little Fabric Shop Valentine Love Bundle was created by building off Anna Maria Horner’s Overachiever Burgundy fabric from her Love Always, AM collection.

Fabric Prints and Pattern Scale: When choosing your printed fabric, make sure you have an assortment of different sized prints and designs. Not every fabric should be large and filled with color. There can be too much of a good thing. Combine a large print with lots of colors with a simple and smaller sized fabric. Variation in size, colors, and patterns will make for a more interesting quilt design as seen in the Little Fabric Shop curated Blue, Green, Gold Fat Quarter Bundle.

Here are a few fabric layout ideas for this quilt. If you would like to create one of your own, we are happy to help! Just shoot us an email to hello@littlefabricshop.com to get it started.

We hope that you continue our ten-month Little Fabric Shop Quilt journey. This month, pick your fabrics so that you are ready to start sewing blocks next month! Follow along with the Instagram #littlefabricshopquilt so that we can see your progress and be inspired by your work. Stay up-to-date on this event and all the happenings at Little Fabric Shop by signing up for our Newsletter located on the bottom of our homepage. Happy Sewing!!