Hey Everyone, welcome back to Stash Blasting Wednesday.

I am off to take a couple of classes this weekend with Pat Pauly from Rochester, NY. I decided that I would treat myself a couple times a year with a class for myself to learn a new technique, idea, etc. This also means that I end up with more UFO’s but that’s life as a quilter I have concluded. Winter is coming and hopefully more of those UFO’s will get completed since they are forecasting a heavy snowfall again.

I’ve had my list of requirements and pre-class work sitting here on my desk for a week now and haven’t really done anything about it. You know how that goes.  Now that I am down to the wire, as I am leaving tomorrow the fabric selection has to be done.

I find selecting fabrics for a class very difficult and I often agonize over the fabric selection and making decisions for hours. I am pretty sure most of you can relate to this as I have heard from students in my classes what a time they had selecting and deciding on what fabrics to bring. It doesn’t seem to matter how good the requirements list is, I still have difficulties. Even worse when you are not going home to your stash every night and can swap out fabrics for others which is my case this weekend.

How am I going to select my fabrics?

I wish I had a formula for selecting fabrics but I am afraid that I don’t.

Sometimes I pick by colour or a colour scheme from the colour wheel. It also depends on what mood I am in and what season it is as the environment around me can influence my fabric selection especially with colour.

At one point I thought I would just go with the meany, miny, mo technique of picking. Maybe even close my eyes while I was doing it. The results could be kind of interesting and possibly not so pleasing to the eye. Who knows, I might create a wonderful masterpiece this way.

I can tell you though that before the final decisions and selections have been made my studio will look like a tornado went through and I will have pulled out nearly half the fabric in my cupboards and put it back again. This picture is only the beginning of the tornado.

The beginning of the selection process

I have decided that this time I am going to use fabrics that have been sitting in my stash or inventory, as someone said it should be called at a trunk show I presented last week, for a long time. I have two different classes to choose fabrics for. Let’s get started.

First Class

The first class I am taking is called Cutting Up the Pretties: Design for Special Fabrics. The requirements list says to pick a special fabric that you love but have been afraid to use and cut up. Oh boy, there are a lot of those fabrics in my stash, not that I have been afraid to cut them up, I just haven’t used them.

Once the main fabric has been decided upon I then had to select more fabrics to blend with that special fabric. I wonder if we can have more than one special fabric? See how it becomes so difficult, this fabric selection thing as we read into things and start asking ourselves questions?

The image at the top of the page shows a few special fabrics that I pulled out of my cupboard. So sticking to the plan of using up fabrics that have been in the cupboard for a long time I went with the poppy fabric which has been in my inventory since I lived in Yellowknife. I even bought a piece of it in Australia because I liked it so much and collected many fabrics to go with it as you can see form the picture below.

Poppy fabric surrounded by many blenders

Second Class

The second class  is called Slash And Burn: Techniques for Improvisational Design. The requirements list for this class is a bit more detailed and requires some pre-class sewing to make up strip sets.

Strip Set #1

Strip set #1 needs to be 5 different fabrics – in value, pattern or colour. So I need to decide which descriptor I am going to use for this strip set.

The descriptor I have chose for this strip set is pattern.

First of all I pulled out a whole bunch of fabrics and laid them out on the table – each with a different pattern of some sort or another. There is quite an assortment here.

A row of different coloured & patterned fabrics

I discarded a few and came up with a couple of options – well many really but if I photographed them all to show you it would take you all day to read the post. The other limiting factor I had with some of the fabrics I really liked was that I didn’t have enough yardage.

Selection #1 – not very inspiring

One selection of not so inspiring fabrics

Selection #2 – a bit better, but not quite there yet

Brighter fabrics which a bit more pizzaz

Selection #3 – almost there

Almost right but not quite – the cream is just not right

Selection #4 – selection done – looks much better with cream removed

The final fabrics to take to class

Strip Set #2

Strip set #2 needs to be 5 similar fabrics – in value, lightness or darkness. Oh boy, more decisions.

I started out with a fabric I have always liked and has been in my fabric inventory for a very long time.

The fabric I pulled out of the cupboard first

Selection #1 – these colours remind me of the autumn maple leaf colours

An array of red/rust/orange fabrics

Selection #2 – remind me of winter and I am not ready for winter

Wintery grey/blue fabrics – pretty but not quite what I was looking for

Selection #3 – darks

Selection of dark batiks with patterns

I went with my first pick of the autumn rust/red/orange colours. Here they are with the strip set 1 fabrics. It should be interesting when they are put together.

The final selections for class #2

How long did this process take me – well, a few hours but I have been known to take all day to pick fabrics for projects so I figure I am doing okay. Now that the fabric selection is complete I need to do some sewing.

Take A Deep Breath, Don’t Worry

What we all need to remember when we are taking a class is that we are going to learn a technique, style, etc not to create an award winning masterpiece but if we do that is definitely a bonus. If the fabrics don’t look quite right that’s okay. After taking the class and it is a technique that you enjoyed then you can try again with different fabrics. The selection will be easier the second time around because you will have gained all kinds of knowledge and insight for fabric selection from the class.

So I will just take a deep breath and not worry about my fabrics, too much. The goal is to go and learn, have fun and enjoy a weekend away with like-minded people.

See you next week when I post what I created with my fabric selections.

Happy Quilting!