Last week, I shared the beginning of designing a quilt, starting with a photo I’d taken on one of my walks (if you missed it, you can read it here: From Photo to Fabric: Designing an Art Quilt). After a bit of editing to improve the composition, I printed it out and pinned it to my design wall where it could sit for a few days while I looked, thought, and considered what might come next.
There are still some bigger decisions ahead, like how large the quilt will be, but before I get to that, I like to focus on one of the most important elements: the background fabrics.
A simple way to choose fabrics is to match colors directly from your printed photo. But in reality, that’s not always as easy as it sounds. Colors can be tricky to interpret on paper, and sometimes the areas you want to match are so small they’re hard to isolate.
That’s where I like to use GIMP as a helping hand. (If you’re interested in learning GIMP and other useful free programs, you might enjoy my workshop “Free Software for Quilters.”)
Instead of guessing, I can use the original photo (which always has better resolution and clearer color) to pick out exact shades. It makes the whole process much more accurate.... and definitely a lot more enjoyable.
I’ve put together a short video to show exactly how I do this:
Once I’ve selected my colors, I print out a reference sheet…
....and then it’s time for one of my favorite parts - diving into my fabric stash.
Using the printed colors as a guide, I start pulling fabrics that feel like a good match. This stage is very hands-on, and often a little surprising. Sometimes the “perfect” fabric appears right away… and sometimes it’s almost perfect, but just not quite large enough. This can influence the final size of the quilt!
At this point, I have a small collection of fabrics to work from. They may look quite light on their own, but that’s intentional. They’ll create a beautiful contrast against the darker foreground elements later on.
Now the real design decisions begin.
- How do I want to build this background?
- Will I piece the fabrics together for a more structured look?
- Or will I use appliqué to create softer, more organic shapes?
That’s what I’ll be exploring next. In the meantime, maybe you already have the perfect fabrics in mind for a background like this. I’d love to see what you come up with. Leave a comment below.
