Spun Sugar - Fabric Selection

Happy Sunday!  After a dark and dreary day yesterday, it's bright and sunny today and it has me thinking of summer.  And summer means my Spun Sugar sew along!  I'm still working out the schedule, but I'm hoping to kick things off in early June.  If you saw my Instagram post from a few days ago, you saw my planned fabric choices.  I've since gotten a few questions about fabric requirements so I thought I'd go ahead and talk about some tips for fabric selection now in case anyone wants to get a head start on fabric shopping.

To make this quilt, you will need:
- 16 fat quarters
- Accent fabric (for pinwheels) – 3/4 yard
- Background – 4 yards
- Corner and setting triangles – 1-1/2 yards
- Binding – 5/8 yard
- Backing – 5-1/2 yards

Please note that you will need to purchase the pattern in order to make this quilt.  I am not going to be giving detailed instructions or cutting measurements during the sew-along.  The sew-along is intended to be a place for support and motivation for those who want to make this quilt, but might be a little intimidated by how complex it looks.  If you need the pattern, you can purchase it in my Etsy shop.

Now, on to the fun part!  Deciding what fabrics to use!  For my pattern sample, I used The Good Life by Bonnie and Camille.  I also made one for my mom using Sugar Pie by Lella Boutique. For the sew along, I will be using Nest, also by Lella Boutique.

So, how do I decide which fat quarters to use, and what to use for the accent and setting triangles?  I generally decide on the accent first.  This is the fabric that will form the pinwheels, so you want to choose something that is going to really stand out among all the other fabrics.  I typically choose a dark fabric with a subtle design (a solid would work well too).  A busy print might not work well when cut up into small pieces since the variety of colors might cause the pinwheels to not show up as well.

I chose the navy print with the small white hearts for my Good Life quilt and the dark teal with the stars for my Sugar Pie version.

Next, I decided on which 16 fat quarters I wanted to use.  Again, I want to make sure that the pinwheels will contrast well with all the other fabrics in the quilt.  So, I will avoid any prints that are too close to the same color as the accent fabric.  For my Good Life quilt, I avoided all the navy prints.  For the Sugar Pie quilt, I avoided all the dark teal prints.  I also avoided any prints that did not contrast with my background fabric, so I left out the low volume prints as well.

Finally, you need to decide what to use for the setting triangles.  Most on-point quilts use the background fabric.  That is definitely an option.  However, I wanted something a little more colorful.  I decided to use a print that was on the light side so that it wouldn't overwhelm the rest of the quilt.  You might decide you prefer a darker fabric.  I think it's really personal preference.

For my Nest quilt, I am going to use the dark gray print shown below for my accent.  Therefore, I left out all the other gray prints.  That gray is not super dark, so I also left out most of the darker blue prints since I was concerned they might blend in too much with the gray accent.  I am using the small blue floral on the white background for my setting triangles.  I love that print, but it's a little too white, I think, to use in the blocks.  I think it will be perfect to add a little softness to the quilt!  The blue stripe in the photo below will be my binding.

I mocked up this quilt in some other Moda collections that were either released recently or will be soon.  Hopefully it will give you some inspiration.  As you will see, you don't have to use a print from the collection as your accent.  I've used black crossweave as the accent in the last three mockups below.  (The print I used in EQ7 was not actually crossweave, but I'm using it to represent the crossweave).

Pepper and Flax by Corey Yoder

Ella and Ollie by Fig Tree and Co.

Vintage Holiday by Bonnie and Camille

Bungalow by Kate Spain

 Once you decide on your fabrics, post a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #spunsugarsewalong.  I would love to see what you choose!

Until next time!
Amanda