Tutorial: Choosing Fabrics for a Quilt

Remember this stack of fabric?  They are for a quilt for my son’s bed.
Although I sew quite a bit, I am not a quilter.  I am lucky enough to have a mom who is a very talented quilter.  She has taught quilt classes for years.  And it’s always so tempting to let her “help” me… with her accurate seams and points.  And her flare for color and fabrics.  Her talent for color is quite wonderful.
But this time, I want it to be my own project.
Choosing fabrics for a quilt is more than just putting together a stack of fabrics that you love.  And knowing this, I called my mom and asked her for her best advice in choosing the fabrics for Ben’s quilt.
She stressed that she really doesn’t believe in hard and fast rules.  She thinks rules are often meant to be broken.  But that said, these are the precepts that guide her creative process:
1.  Start with a fabric that you love.  This can be a starting point to build the rest of your fabric collection around.

Tutorial: Cutting Fabrics for a Quilt

I hope there are a few other beginning quilters out there who can benefit from the lessons I’m learning from my mom as I make a quilt for my son.  Choosing fabrics was the first in my series of posts on beginning quilting.
My next step is to cut all my fabrics and get them ready for piecing.
Now I cut fabrics all the time for various projects, but cutting for a quilt requires precision.   So I dropped by my Mom’s house the other day for a dust up lesson on how to accurately cut my stack of fabrics.  My mom has taught quilting classes for many years, and I feel so lucky to have her as a resource.
First off, she said it’s important to have a good mat, ruler and sharp blade.  She recommends before buying a ruler, really looking at them carefully and find one you are comfortable with, one that is easy to read.

The next key to accurate cutting is to carefully press all your fabrics first.