Colouring In

Hey ho StitchyMites,

I'm popping my head up over the wall quickly to say hello and then disappearing again. Apologies to be short and sweet this week but ​Damo takes possession of the laser machine for That's Accurate, and also the new business premises on Monday, which happens to be the same day as the Słodki BOM is revealed and opens for subscription, so its all systems go in the Fielke household this week.

I'm starting to play with the blocks for my own quilt for Słodki now that the sketch is finalised. I will be making it in solids, which is very unlike me - the piecing is in solids, but the appliqué will be prints. The prints I'm fine with but I need to choose the solids carefully, and as I don't have a massive stash of every colour of the rainbow in solids, I need to actually purchase them to go forward. It's a nice opportunity actually, because although there won't be a kit for this BOM as I am not partnering with anyone (yay! back to normal format!), it does mean that I can give you the all the colours I'm using because they are all from the same manufacturer.

If you're fairly new to quilting, and even if you aren't, you might not realise that all solid fabrics are not created equal. Different companies print on different base cloths - some use cheaper, thicker fabrics for their solids because they aren't printing onto them, so they don't care so much about the thread count. That means you're usually paying a premium for a brand name solid that's on an inferior cloth. Others use the same base cloth as they do for the prints, and yet others use a higher quality, finer thread count for their solids because the finer threads hold the integrity of the colours better when they're woven into one full colour - and also when they're pressed, and washed. Its all very complicated, but it does also mean that just popping out and buying any old solid fabric isn't what I'm after, regardless of the actual colour of it on purchase.

I have a few favourite brands of solid fabrics, but I also wanted to make sure that the fabric would be fairly easy to get hold of for anyone who wants to use the same colours as me, or the same colour in a certain spot. I absolutely love Michael Miller Cotton Couture - it cuts and pieces beautifully and has a lovely silky hand, but it can be a little tricky to get hold of in a wide range of colours in some countries, otherwise it would have been my first choice. I love the Ruby and Bee solids from Windham Fabrics, because the colours are to die for, but they don't have a very dark navy (it's more of a royal blue) and that's likely going to be my background colour. I love the Tilda solids, but they aren't bright enough for this particular quilt. I love the Free Spirit Designer Essentials, but the colour range isn't wide enough for me for this project.

And so I have landed with Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Solids. Art Gallery's fabrics are a very high thread count and the colours in their solid fabrics are vivid and bold. Their colour card is extensive and there are loads of shades and variations in each colour. I'm sold.

Current state of affairs - tea very important.

My background colour is (I think) going to be Heart of the Ocean, which is a dark navy that doesn't have too much black in it.

I'm going to order some and make a test block before I commit to yards and yards. I like the idea of the bright colours and the simple shapes popping against the dark background. It's a long time since I did a BOM with a dark background too, the last one was actually the first one, Happy Days! Still one of my favourite quilts - and if you're on the fence about trying one of my BOMs, this is the one for you. You learn about 12 different techniques and there's three different border options, because I made the quilt three times. I was very ambitious about my sanity in 2016 :D

You can view here

OK peeps that's the whole box and dice for today, have fun with whatever you're up to - and if you're thinking you want an Art Gallery Fabrics colour card to have a play and get yourself ready for Słodki (which is pronounced Swod - ki by the way), I got mine from The Stitch Saloon here in Aus. www.thestitchsaloon.com

Sarah xx​