A Question for All
When I was chatting with Angie recently we were discussing our quilting likes and dislikes. Our style preferences and such. I find that I like it ALL however I really do not enjoy working with batiks.
So, what's your 'flavor'? Do you find yourself being drawn to certain colors, patterns, etc. I'm sure you know what I'm asking. Please leave a comment and share!
A simple thank you for visiting my blog - I hope you'll stop again!
In Friendship,
Darlene
49 comments:
Hi Darlene :-)
I'm always drawn to the more vintage looks (altho you couldn't tell by my blog yet) Batiks are ok, but I can honestly say I don't have many in my stash and I've never made a quilt with them. I've heard that they are lovely to needle turn tho.
Why? Are you trying to decide what to send me for Christmas?! ROFLOL!
The problem with me is that I love ALL of them. I had my Thimbleberries period (most of my stash),now I'm in a Taupe Japanese fabrics mood. I also have a unconditional love for 1930's repros and feesacks, but can't find them here, so you won't see any of them in my stash. Batiks are very interesting for applique quilts, as their shades can perfectly imitate folliage, etc..., and as Mar says they're so easy to work with because they don't frill. I have very few light colors. Pastels are just not me to work with, I like contrast...although I can easily fall in love with a soft toned quilt. (does that make sense ? LOL).
I think we're in constant evolution, and our fabrics are reflecting it, which explains why we often say : "why on earth did I buy this one ? What was I thinking ?" - Smiles -
When looking at antique quilts, I'm in awe at what quilters could do and how they could express themselves with a very restricted fabric choice. Maybe do we have TOO MANY now ?
I guess that early quilters came back home with two, maybe three fabrics, and then decided what they would/could do with them. Today we choose a pattern, and then
go choosing the best appropriate color shades, etc ("Yes, I need some pink, but not that pink, maybe a softer one, or a stronger one...." - Smiles -)
Hugs & smiles, Darlene !
NADINE
First of all - the Polka Dot girls are incredibly cute and the Pay it forward gift is amazing -- lucky duck!!
I seem to go through stages and collect one particular fabric to excess - like 30's fabrics, or Japanese fabrics etc. and then move on to something else. Now I am collecting African fabrics. I think it is a disease - LOL
What I really like is the Fat Quarter club - where it is a nice surprise of co-ordinating fat quarters that arrive every month.
Such a good question Darlene, I'm a CW Reproduction girl thru and thru. Choice is limited here, so it's like I've struck gold when I find a piece.
*hugs*
Tazzie
:-)
I love reproduction fabrics from the 1800's the best! can never buy enough of them!!!!
then once ina while I love working with 30's fabrics and then plaids and such for the folk art style quilts..which is what I am working with right now! Something that says fall to me...I am looking forward to the fall weather and colors!
great question!
Kathie
Well like you I ove everything, am only not a batik girl.
I'm always drawn to traditional blocks done in a scrappy way - favourites are houses, baskets, shoo fly, churn dash.
The colour red always attracts me too. Fav fabric style right now is Civil War repros (but they are SO hard to find in the UK)!
I like brights of any color and I love Batiks. Right now I am also really into polka dots. I had one piece of mauve with orange dots that I have unfortunately used all up. If I ever see it again I think I'll buy the bolt!
Im a country girl through and through...i can appreciate all those pretty florals, batiks ....nope but i stick with what i love!!!
I'm with you - I'm not a fan of batiks either. I don't care for Thimbleberries a whole lot either. Right now I like everything else.
I think my taste changes every week. I had to stop and really think about this question. I absoloutely love red, although you'd never know looking at quilts that are finished, also blues, and then there's the lovely soft pastels, oh what the heck I love just about any type of fabric that decides to jump in my shopping bag and come home with me.
First off...tell Kim it's not for her....it's for me. :)
I love it all including the batiks. I like old-fashioned scrappy and two color quilts.
I have realized that I like tonal fabrics: color on color, batiks, textural looking. I really don't care for the smallish prints. That said, I do like the outrageous large prints that jump up and scream look at me!
Civil war repros- I just don't like the darkness of some of the fabrics. Gloomy is a good word for them.
Though I have a pretty nice stash of fabric everytime I join a swap and one of the girls wants CW I have to go buy it special...
But I love hand dyes and 30's repros and , and, and....
I am with Nadine, though I do have a special love of CW repos...I also love a touch of black in all my quilts. Not because I am dark, I feel it brightens the other fabrics with it's contrast.
I am drawn to brights lately. Previously, I was drawn to fall colours. I seem to have collected many leaf and pumpkin patterns up to now! LOL
Oh, gosh, this is a good question. I started off with the Robyn Pandolph soft color love. I still love that shabby chic look. Then I fell in love with CW and especially folk art stuff, and I still love that. I have most every kind of fabric, and I've tried everything, including brights thanks to my friend Jane, but I still gravitate back to the folk art stuff. Lots of batiks in my stash, too. I love paper piecing with them because I don't have to worry about the right/wrong side, and that's an issue with me. I get confused sometimes - well, a lot of times! LOL. I guess novelties are my least favorite, but I have some of those, too. Sheesh, I guess I do have one of everything! The only thing I avoid is purple, although there's a little bit of that up in the stash room. I'm hopeless!
Civil War repos, 30's prints, Thimbleberries, etc, etc, LOL I think that I love it all!!!!!!!
I love it all! I guess my project determines the fabric I use. I am working on some applique that I wouldn't use anything but batiks for, but then some of my other applique is made using regular quilting fabric. I love calicos in a scrappy quilt. I am drawn to more clear colors, and I really like pastels. I don't use many of the dark colors typical in primitive quilts because those are not the colors that really appeal to me. I do try to get myself to step out of my comfort zone and try new things though.
That's a very good question. I can tell you I don't like batiks, orientals, brights or novelties. I do like vintage, CW reproductions, homepuns and I really like to throw in a few pretties. I like to work with dark colours and then I feel in the mood for something with flowers and girlie girl. Does that make sense?
Having a wide range of likes, I also have a few dislikes. Among the likes: some CW & other 1800s, a bit of 1930s but not too much, pastels and shabby chic look, as well as the rich fall colors, traditional prints, small prints mostly. Those I don't like well enough to buy: batiks, brights (except for gift quilts or samples), the retro 60s - 70s, or whatever all these are that I'm seeing in the magazines and catalogs, and non-traditional artsy type fabrics, African fabrics. I guess I'm a fairly traditional, old-fashioned quilter and not stepped up yet into the modern look that is becoming popular with others. Which is OK - thank goodness we have the freedom to be different. I do like art quilts, light quilts, dark quilts, but I don't necessarily need to make or own all of them. It just has to say "buy me" and I will find a way to use it. If it turns me off on the bolt, I pass it up.
I like to work with shabby chic, patriotic and 30's style fabrics. I love quilts with a lot of fabrics, simple style but complicated looking. I don't have a huge stash because I love working with fat quarter bundles. Not so good for my pocketbook!
What I am not so fond of is CW, retro and modern. The new fabrics with the big bold patterns are not for me at all! (My daughter loves those.)
I do love brights but I have only used them in four quilts that I gave away as gifts. Now, with my two grandbabies (coming soon!) I will have many chances to use them!
I've been drawn to different fabrics. When I'd just started quilting I bought a lot of dark colors, mostly blue and purple. I wanted to get my stash big quickly! Today my taste have changed a lot, I'm more drawn to 19th century prints and large scale prints like Heather Bailey or Amy Butler. I think I've recently learned how to buy fabric, which colors I will use, and which ones that just will collect dust.
The fabrics I like the least is primary colored prints with animals or people.Too many strong colors in one fabric is never good. One of the worst fabrics I can think of is a print with grass and border collie-dogs. Horrible!
I love reproduction fabrics Civil War era. The lady at the fabric store always calls them my mud colors. I also have a particular soft spot for Moda Kansas Troubles. I don't think they have ever put out a collection that I haven't loved most, if not all, of them.
I'm not a batik fan either although I have seen some batik quilts that I have liked. Just not for me.
I'm a sucker for florals. Especially in jewel tones. I also like new agey goddessy stuff with spirals and rune-like motifs.
I have met very few fabrics I didn't love and want to take home. I am a hand dyer so I have tons of that. But the fabric that makes me most comfortable to work with, the colors, the style, etc, would be civil war reproductions. Those make my heart go pitter pat.
My style is primitive and my favorite fabrics are plaids . . . just like the fact that I can't resist buying another white t-shirt *s* I must buy the plaids - I can't stop myself.
I am definetly drawn to 30s reproductions. I also love modern designers like Michael Miller and Tracy Porter.
Honestly though... I rarely meet a fabric I don't like!
I am very easily swayed. A good display by a store, designer or blogger can influence my flavour of the month.
Bright colors, batiks, modern prints/takes on classic patterns, novelties, oriental prints -- love 'em all. I'm not much into the CW repros or 30's -- though there are some of both I adore, they just don't tend to end up in my stash or my quilts. Honestly, it depends on where the mood takes me and/or who I'm making the quilt for. I'll play with any fabric -- but I do have my favorites :0).
As Atet said, it depends on who the quilt is for. My sister always says the quilt will tell you what it wants, and it think that's true. I probably wdn't have been so drawn to batiks initially, as I'm more into nostalgia, but my sister's fondness for batiks has influenced me and now i love them--also love mixing unexpected things together.
Love tone-on-tone prints and i think late 19thC or similar. Like 30s, again, depending on the quilt.
i like to throw in a subtley colored novelty fabric in a scrappy quilt, esp for a kid or young person, to surprise them.
generally not fond of brights, unless for a kid quilt, but even then, only in moderation.
Almost forgot: love Kaffe Fassett and the new designers like Heather Bailey.
great question
Hi Darlene -- I'm also not a batik kinda gal -- they just don't appeal to me. I usually go for the light and airy, more cottage feel/look fabrics. (although, I do also like some brights --depends on my mood and the time of year it is.)
I am definately a primitive, folk art quilter but I also enjoy lots of other venues. I guess the only thing that I have not been comfortable tackling is the art quilt.
My current bent is 1800 reproduction fabrics and almost anything Moda designs. I don't care much for 1930s fabrics, batiks or most noveltry prints, although the novelties still catch my eye. I've just collected so many and then wondered "what on earth do I DO with this?" that I've made myself stop buying them! Good discussion topic, Darlene!
Hi Darlene,
I love fabric - almost all kinds of cotton but my favorites are florals and batiks. I love rich jewel tone colors and have lots of dark and medium values in my stash- not much light. There are so many choices out there and not enough time to turn them all into quilts VBS
Regards from a Western Canadian quilter,
Anna
Hard question- I like just about everything, but I really enjoy myself when I can sit down and sew traditional blocks. When it comes to fabrics I like COLOR! I'm not into the Japanese fabrics (yet) as the colors are subdued. I like batiks though, they are wonderful, especially for appliques.
I love vintage quilts and cw repros and plaids. My favorite blocks are nine patches, baskets and stars. Scrappy quilts are always a plus as well as quilts with piecing and applique combined. Although I appreciate things made with batiks and modern, bold prints, they just aren't me.
Lots of opinions here. Personally I LOVE a pattern where something has been sewn together, then recut, etc. The mystery of how it was put together really appeals to me. And I LOVE forest-y tones/colors.
I enjoy most fabrics, especially brights-however not a fan of cw,thimbleberries, blah looking fabric.
I do not like the batik fabrics. I love the 1800's and 1930's reproductions. Those are my all time favorites. So make sure you make my Christmas present ouf of either of those. LOL
Great question, I am drawing to muted brights, if that make sense. I also use a lot of tone on tone for backgrounds. I like to change up what I am working on, I defiantly not one of those quilter who always used the same fabrics. I like Batiks, but tend to mix them in with other fabrics. I like to mix fabric lines, just can help myself.
I love them all! Even batiks. Maybe not japanese prints, except for the children's japanese prints -- I do like those. I currently love the pastels and brights and 1930's and pinks and browns and blues and ... everything! Not crazy about arty quilts, but do like some of them. And really not crazy about raw edges on quilts. Gosh, it's awfully brave of you to ask -- you're going to be awfully busy making stuff for all 44 of us!!! LOL.
My stash would tell you that I like brights and batiks.
My husband would tell you that I like whatever is new and expensive.
My Brother (sewing machine) would tell you that we like 100% cotton fabrics, except not flannel.
I would tell you that I like everything :)
I don't have a particular favorite color, designer, style, etc. I usually buy what speaks to me or what I need to compliment something I already have for a particular project. I did just make several baby quilts using 30's repros but wouldn't want to do that all the time. I tend to find a pattern or design I like and then look in the stash to see what I have that I can use to make it work.
I love the old looking materials, and shabby chic old... if that makes sense...
I am not much on modern or Primary colors...
I seem to always be within a certain color range with what I buy,pinks- blushy pinks-old rose pink-etc, green in various shades-sages-moss greens-willow-etc, browns, golds, tans, I use very few blues or purples, though I do use a few purples in shades of old lavender or a vintage plum color.. I think my entire stash coordinates lol...
I like florals, polka dots, checks and plaids as long as they fit within the things above style and color wise :O)...
I'm pretty sure by now you know my preferences - reproductions, plaids, folk art and primitive looking designs. Warm colors. I also love the soft florals - ala Robyn Pandolph fabrics. At one time I bought batiks - I've given them all away now. I have few brights any more either. And none of the modern looking stuff. I'm a traditionalist through and through.
Hello there, Darlene! Love your blog! Just wondering about your Polka Dot girls! Who is the designer and where can I find the patterns?! Have a nice weekend! Mary Ann in Denmark
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