My First Quilt: Choosing Fabrics
I wish I had taken up quilting sooner, for a few reasons.
- I would have had such a cool hobby for the stay-at-home lockdown (which my boyfriend and I are still adhering to).
- I would not have had to go through so much internal anguish about venturing out to purchase fabric (I live in Houston, and Texas is already on phase 3 of “reopening” the state… which means a lot of people think that signals the end of the spread and end of masks).
- I would have found out about the cutest quilt shop much sooner.
That’s right, I was internally torn about going out for some fabric; I’ve got a a precious Grandma to protect! But, I was so pleased to find a quilt shop on the outskirts of Houston was open, for limited hours to a limited number of people, and they were requiring every person in the shop to wear a mask. And with a small sense of relief from what feels like the heaviest load of worries, my boyfriend and I made a quick trip from the city up to the historic Spring, TX to visit Cupcake Quilts.
This is the coolest shop I have ever been in! It’s located inside of an old red schoolhouse, in the heart of Old Town Spring, which is more charming than I can even begin to describe. The place is quite large for being in a little old schoolhouse; there were two main rooms full of bolts and bolts of fabric, a corner for notions, a hallway full of solids, and two back rooms making up a studio with Bernina machines and a long arm at the ready. They were also staffed with the cheeriest and friendliest ladies I have met in a very long time.
Back to the fabric. For my first quilt, I have six colors in mind:
– Dark Gray
– Cream/Mushroom
– Off-white
– Mustard Golden Yellow
– Dusty Mauve
– Nude Brown
Armed with my pattern and the colored mock up I’d made in PhotoShop, I began my search. I will be honest, I went in there planning to buy only solids. I don’t know why, and I am still trying to rack my brain now, but I just kind of assumed that there wouldn’t be any printed fabrics that would fit the modern quilt design in my head (even though I’ve been following nothing but modern quilt makers on instagram and I KNOW there are great printed fabrics on the market). I’m glad I was wrong. I’m not saying I was in love with every bolt in there, but there were more than a few that had the vibe I like. And I did end up with some prints!
For the “dark gray/almost black” that I wanted, I opted for a black with yellow twinkle stars. For the “nude brown,” my boyfriend spotted a soft neutral brown with dainty white daisies that I loved. And for the “off-white,” I chose a really cool tone on tone with small scratched x’s. I did find the hallway of solids had every other color I was looking for. I ended up with a bit of a more pink mauve than I imagined, but it tied in so much better when holding all the fabric together. And I picked the most popular mustard yellow, as I finished off the bolt (and got a 10% discount for doing so!).
Since this is my first quilt, I really have no idea about fabric requirements. I did my best research online, using fabric requirement calculators. In the end, I ended up getting 1 yard of the black and brown, 1.5 yards of the mustard yellow, and 2 yards of all other colors. Better safe than sorry.
But also, this is all starting to really add up! $$$
The ladies at the shop were so wonderful, witty, and kind. I can’t imagine how much fun it must be in there when social distancing is not required! I promised to bring my completed quilt top in once finished, as per their shop policy, and I even got some great information about getting a tune-up for my new/old machine from one of their onsite Bernina specialists.
I would love nothing more than to attend a workshop or a join a quilting group/meetup/guild at Cupcake Quilts. And so desperately want to take my Grandma on a fun day out in Old Town Spring, starting with the quilt shop. For now, I’ll peruse their online course offerings and focus on my first quilt.
Now it’s time to cut. Well, it’s time to watch a dozen YouTube quilting videos on how to cut fabric, and THEN it’s time to cut.
