Sheree from Chicago

Hi Klue -
This may seem a foolish question, but how many different colors are you talking about? I am thinking of the Carolina Patchwork Maypole Baby Jane Quilt made by Emily you posted, that I saved ( I like the site and Emily's sense of humor) but am unable to tell how many different fabrics she has. What do you think?

kluedesigns

i just love that quilt.

i would guess she had about 12 yards of the mint green. this was used for the background in all the blocks,triangles, and corners plus as square sashing and maybe even a solid triangle here and there.

then the sashing is purple and she used the purple to make the scallops so i would think that about 5 yards of purple.

then she had maybe 10 yards of various floral cottage fabric for all the piece work.

Esqmommy

It's dawning on me I may need to find more small print fabrics. I have several larger prints that may not show very well at all. Oh well, I'll keep hunting...gives me something fun to do!!

kluedesigns

a mix of small and medium would be ok. that cottage fabric jane i posted a while back was done with some large floral prints and then some smaller florals and dots.

i think the key to fabric selection is just to avoid any prints that have long/big blank spaces because those sections will just look like a solid instead of a print.

Sheree from Chicago

Thanks so much Klue - and off we go!

Esqmommy

I ended up going with the Kona cream. All the colors came in and I like it the best. It's crisp enough for me, which is a must. I love the look of crispness in quilts. And the best part, I ordered 5 yards, at 50% off, and it was end of bolt so they threw in an entire yard for free!! So, I ended up with 6 yards at $2.70 per yard. Not a bad deal! I hope 6 yards will cover it - what do you think?

kluedesigns

wow, what a deal.

cream is my favorite kona neutral too. for some reason i call it buttercream, i guess it reminds me of icing on a cake.

are you using it as the background fabric for the blocks?

what about the triangles is it the background fabric for the pieced ones?

what about the non-pieced triangles are you doing them in the cream?

this way we can gauge how much cream you'll need.

Esqmommy

I hadn't really thought it through. Should I use a different neutral? Yes, my plan was to use the cream as the neutral. Is there a reason why I'd want to use a different neutral on the triangles? I'm not that great a visualizer. I did get the software in but have been too sick to get it going. I imagine once I do, I can play with it and see what effects using a different neutral for the blocks vs. triangles. Any hints or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Sheree from Chicago

Hello fellow Dear Jane fan club members!
The Dear Jane Software came today from JoAnnes (thank you for the tip Klue). I haven't opened it yet. I want to be refreshed when I open it.
Klue was right, the book is useless for putting your quilt together, although I'm so into doing this quilt it was nice having it to read.
I have decided to also do a red, white and blue "American Jane". I am running out of wall space and this is not a quilt I would hang, so I decided red, white and blue for a table cover as we have a big bash on the 4th of July. I'm doing the red and blue in batiks. I've started with 5 yards of a couple different blues and five yards of two different red batiks. That should hold me for a while.
What fun it is picking out fabric. I love it!!!!!!!

kluedesigns

i like how the janes look with one consistent color thru out. so in my case that would be indigo blue. then i have the others colors of either red/white and white/red.

if it was me i would do all the pieced work with the cream as the neutral.

then for the solid triangles you could either use a solid color like i've done in my american jane or you could use print fabrics in the solid triangles like jane did.

i think the big difference is how the piece triangles end up looking. if you go back to my pic of american jane you'll see that the piece sections of the triangle pop out almost like skyscraper buildings (it reminds me of the manhattan skyline).

jane's triangles look more like triangles because she used prints in the solid sections instead of having those sections blend into the background.

its really just a matter of taste and which look you prefer.

when you feel better, play around with the software and make a few examples before you settle in on a final design.

there's plenty of time to order more cream fabric if you need too.