Bundling up in summer

I’m not technically a staff member at Rock Paper Scissors, though I do teach Beginning Quilting and Free Motion Basics there*. So I was absolutely thrilled when I stopped in for my usual Tuesday visit and they asked me to make a fat quarter bundle along with the staffers. Picking fabric is one of my favorite parts of quilting, and I can spend a loooong time trying out different combinations before I feel like it clicks. I’ve never had much budget for stashing, so I tend to pick fabric for each project and use almost all of it. I’m slowly building a stash, but for now I get to wrestle with bolts.

It was set up like a challenge. The starting fabric was picked for me by Beth, from Comma by Zen Chic.

Great colors, fun shapes. I decided to pick fabric that played on each of the colors in this print.

I liked the shapes and the pop of the orange, the cool calm of a medium gray solid, the playfulness of the black and white dots and the geometry of the yellow and off-white. The green was the hardest part. I thought it was necessary to balance the palette out a little, but I couldn’t find just the right shade. So I ended up with commas from Comma, a little reluctantly because I wanted to break out of using fabric from the same collections.

It was a fun afternoon with a fun result. I think the gang is cutting and bundling now. It’s called Sparkler.

How do you pick fabric?