{"id":1712,"date":"2012-09-22T08:35:15","date_gmt":"2012-09-22T13:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/?p=1712"},"modified":"2012-09-22T08:35:15","modified_gmt":"2012-09-22T13:35:15","slug":"choosing-and-using-fabrics-and-threads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/?p=1712","title":{"rendered":"Choosing and Using Fabrics and Threads"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This tiny section\u00a0of one of my Quilt\u00a0National’13 entries brings me to a post I’ve been meaning to put up for a while, on how I choose and\u00a0use fabric.\u00a0 (But “Thread” elbowed\u00a0its way in as I wrote, so I\u00a0 considered and finally allowed it to stay on this page.)<\/p>\n

I have to tell you, the minute I saw this gold-dotted black fabric several years ago in a\u00a0USA quilt store, it demanded to be bought – leapt off the shelf calling out “Pick me! Pick me!”\u00a0\u00a0As I\u00a0\u00a0have an emotional attachment to dots, glitter and black, it was a shoe in.\u00a0\u00a0Whenever I\u00a0begin a new work, I get potentially relevant fabrics out, spread them on a table and the floor if necessary – and\u00a0once I’ve selected what to use, \u00a0put most of them away again, and then turn to my scrap bag to augment the range.\u00a0 I and other quilters really do call this process ‘auditioning’.\u00a0\u00a0 If I think there still must be something more, something special I’ve overlooked, I dig really, really deep\u00a0down to the back of\u00a0my fabric stash, which is how I came across this one I’d forgotten.\u00a0 I still can’t quite believe it lurked in the background for a couple of years, but it must have.<\/p>\n

Quite often people say to me – “Where do you buy your fabrics?” and the short answer is “Anywhere and Everywhere”.\u00a0\u00a0 I always try to have a little cash on me or space on a card to be able to buy something I love when I come across it.\u00a0 I know when I\u00a0return it will\u00a0have gone.\u00a0 I recently posted\u00a0<\/em> <\/span>2012\/13\/14<\/a> and elsewhere I can’t find right now !!! on\u00a0surprising fabrics I’ve discovered\u00a0in Montevideo’s\u00a0sunday markets<\/span><\/em>.\u00a0 When down there\u00a0I always check through the\u00a0bolts and rolls on\u00a0any fabric vendor’s tables\u00a0–\u00a0I just never know what\u00a0will be\u00a0mixed\u00a0in\u00a0with the majority of stuff that doesn’t especially interest me.\u00a0\u00a0True love determines whether or not I\u00a0buy any fabric\u00a0 and experience has shown\u00a0that if I\u00a0love it I will use it –\u00a0no fabric\u00a0being too\u00a0precious to cut into<\/span><\/em><\/span>.\u00a0 But, it’s possible a particular fabric may lurk in my cupboard\u00a0for several years until just the right moment.<\/p>\n

If you have looked at my work\u00a0 in the Colour Memory and Ebb&Flow galleries, you’ll know my contemporary freehand patchwork art quilts have always been composed of many\u00a0fabrics in small amounts.\u00a0 I always save small pieces from previous projects, and often dive into\u00a0my\u00a0scrap bags for tiny amounts of many different scraps to use in a quilt. \u00a0I\u00a0happily\u00a0team unusual fabrics and\u00a0imho it works\u00a0because every\u00a0fabric I use I initially bought for\u00a0<\/em>love<\/em><\/span>.\u00a0Recent works can\u00a0contain fabrics spanning over 25 years – let the textile historian experts make what they will with that!<\/p>\n

Here are\u00a0my\u00a0personal \u00a0‘rules’ that determine how I buy new fabric<\/span><\/em>:<\/p>\n