Almost Solid: The Prints that Don't Look Like Prints

So much fabric is about the prints. And there are mountains of them. Some sophisticated, some Juvenal, something for everyone you might ever want to quilt for. We all have our collections of prints that simple pleased us for the graphics or the subject matter.

But as people get more serious about their quilting, they often want something more versatile and with less cute factor. Today we're going to look at the almost solids.

One of the trends in the art world is to use your own fabric. Did you dye it? Marbelize it? Rust it? Run it through the printer? Have your own design printed? The list seems endless. It's a lot of fun but it's also fairly exhausting. If you don't do those things on a regular basis, you probably don't have the setup, patience and time to produce your own fabric in quantity. It's really out of reach for most quilters.

But with that said, they are pretty. Very pretty. And it's a great look. 

They also tend to cost the earth. They're hand crafted and they take a lot of time and costly materials.





Enter the almost solid prints.
These are the prints that mimic hand crafted fabric. They can be very sophisticated and very versatile. But since they're commercially made, they cost pretty much what ordinary quilt fabrics cost. And they do give you the designer look. Often they are designed by quilt artists as part of their fabric lines.

Solid fabrics are a great choice when

• You want to make a bold statement
• You want the block pattern to show strongly
• You want lots of room to show off your quilting

Almost solids are a great choice when

• You want a designer look to your fabric.
• You want some odd/interesting colors.
• You want a textured feel to your fabric.

Try  some almost solids in your next quilt and see how sophisticated and mod they make your quilting. And you don't have to take them down to the river and beat them on a rock to create that look.

The American Made Brand Collection, Some Solid Solids

You may have heard people talk about fabric collections or designer fabric collections. What does that mean?

When you go into a quilt store, you may find several prints in the same color scheme, and the same style. That's not an accident. They were designed to work with each other. They're put out by the fabric company as a collection.

  Did you want a background that matches the white in the print? Did you want the same colors but in a small print for the bias? Collections make that super simple.

But sometimes a collection reaches past that and becomes a constant staple.

That's why we're so excited about the American Made Brand Collection from Clothworks. It's more than 20 colors of solids in the same weight, perfect for piecing and for quilting. And it's made and grown in America, which is jobs and support for our own fabric industry.
We couldn't wait till it arrived. And we couldn't leave it alone.

Most times we buy solids it's catch as catch can. You'll find a piece in one weight, another piece where the color is perfect but it has poly in it. And there will be no more than two of every color. How limited is that!

That's why this collection is so great! The colors blend well. There's a full color range. They're the same weight and content. And did we say that they're pretty? They're really pretty. 

Solids also give us a great design experience. They give us the best backgrounds for quilting and shine clean and clear in your quilt design.

Clothworks shared this great Thickety Mountain quilt pattern with us. If we had to hunt this range of colors that could be a long search. This great collection has them all ready for us. How good is that?






You can look forward to that as a class at the shop.

Things to know about collections in general:

• Usually (unless it's an amazingly popular print) you will probably only see it for one season. Collections come and go. Quickly. If you like it, we recommend you buy it now. You many never see it again. And it's not likely the store will be able to reorder it, particularly if it's from a past year.Totally sad. Totally true.
• Colors change every season. It's not always drastic but it does happen. One reason to collect bits of fabric constantly is that this year's green may not be in next year. Really.
• Having a mix of colors is always better if you do run out.  5 prints the same shade may look like a design decision. When you have one block with one different shade, we all know what happened.

Fabric collections make quilt design super easy and fool proof. It's like you have a fabric designer in your pocket and she picked out the best stuff for you. And the new American Made collection has us wowed! Come in and play with it today!

A Tale of Three Backgrounds: Blending Multicolor Prints

We looked at how the size of a print changes it's value last time.  But those prints were all the same colors, one shade of red and white, changed by the size of the print. Now we're going to look at prints of more than 2 colors.


How much does that change things? In some ways, a lot. In some ways not so much. But you want to be the one in control of your quilt. Knowledge is power.

Here is a range of green, yellow, white and brown prints in differing sizes. Several of them have 
bits of red in them.

                      

A cream color background gives us a very neutral base, where only the pattern within the blocks  show. Incidentally, it would also leave you with four corners you could quilt to a fair-thee-well. It's clean and simple

This cream and medium green background is more textural. The green leaves pull out the olive in the blocks. It's a busier background, but it functions as a slightly olive green cream color.

This third print, with is larger daisies, is harder to classify. It's definitely got yellow splotches that brighten and randomize the background.






What does this tell us about prints as apposed to solids?
A solid color is:

• Simple
• Plain
• Shows up the prints within the block
• May show dirt or soil
• Will show extensive quilting

A small print will:

• Add texture
• Add or extend the colors in the block
• Hide quilting

A larger print will:

• Add a random textural element
• Add patches of color to the cream background
• Will show some quilting, but not anything extreme
• Probably won't hide soil or wear.

All of this can help you make the best fabric decisions for your quilts. Try everything, and see what you like best.