Picking Your Fabric
Joyce Mitchel
The first thing that you want to do is pick out your focus fabric, this could be a fabric that you wish to use primarily throughout the quilt or maybe just on the borders to tie the whole quilt together. Then from that fabric you will be able to pull colors that you can use for your complementary colors. If your primary piece has a bright look to it then you will want to go with a white or black background piece to enhance this brightness. If your primary piece has an antique look to it then you will want to go with an off white or brown background. If you are one of those who say that they cannot put colors together then stop worrying because the fabric designers have made it easy for you. Along the side of the fabric, in the selvage, they have placed colored dots. These dots each have a color that is used within the piece of fabric. Some of these colors are not clear to the eye but when you check the dots and then look at the piece again you will be able to find them. One trick that I like to do is to use one of these less seen colors as a secondary color and watch this color just come popping out of my primary piece. The thing is that you can use these dots if you are worried about exact shade or color coordination.