Monday 27 August 2012

Stash Play - Macaw Spectrum

As I mentioned when I was organizing my stash earlier this summer, I rediscovered a lot of beloved fabrics and came up with an easy, little game to play with my stash more (sounds a little dirty, eh?). I'm also hoping that this game will help me get better at picking fabrics according to a colour palette. I don't necessarily plan on using these arrangements for any projects, but you never know.

So here's how it works -- I'm going to choose a palette from one of my favourite sites Design Seeds, and try to find fabrics in my stash that would work with it. Pretty straightforward and fun, right? Shall we give it a try?

The first palette I chose was Macaw Spectrum:
macaw spectrum


Here's my take in solid fabric:
1. Golden Yellow - Heritage Quilting Cottons
2. Orange - Heritage Quilting Cottons
3. Ruby - Kona
4. Navy - Heritage Quilting Cottons
5. Charcoal - Kona 
The navy I have is quite a bit darker than the one in the palette and should have a little more grey in it, but I think the fabric palette still works (at least in person it does -- I'll work on the photos!).

Let's make it a bit trickier and try print fabrics:

1. Yellow crosshatch - No idea
2. Orange - Bloom by CP Designs
3. Red dot - No idea
4. Blue ocean swirl - No idea
5. Grey - Southwest Fantasy by Joyce Straus for Northcott
Even though the colours seem to work together, I find the patterns really don't.

So let's try something else:

1. Yellow tone on tone - No idea
2. Orange tone on tone - No idea
3. Red dot - No idea
4. Navy gingham - VIP Crantston
5. Black and white - Tattoo by Melissa Marie for Camelot
Meh. How's that for some sophisticated analysis?

I think I like this combo best:

1. Yellow tone on tone - No idea
2. Orange - Bloom by CP Designs
3. Red dot - No idea
4. Blue ocean swirl - No idea
5. Charcoal - Kona
I don't have any charcoal grey prints and few ruby red prints, so this stash play was not so successful on the print side, but the solids work. And it did get me trying out different fabrics in my stash. The hardest part was actually trying to get good photos of the fabrics. Hopefully that will get better.

What did you think? Would you give this game a try with your stash?

See you on the quilt side,
M-R

14 comments:

  1. Awesome! Now...make a Macaw quilty!

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  2. The solids definitely work. I'd play the game but my studio wouldn't recover from the fabric avalanches even though choosing fabric is my most favourite thing to do and I DO have options!!! LOL

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  3. Hey, welcome back to the land of the quilter! :D That Mccaw palette is wild!

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  4. Gosh - that's really clever! Will have to take a peek at that site. I'd have to pick different colours from my stash - don't think I have many Macaw colours - might be able to do the red and yellow!

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  5. you're just too smart...great idea M-R. I like them all.

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  7. Great idea! I would definitely give this a try... especially when I already have a pattern picked out but don't know what fabrics to use. My favorite combo is the same as yours, so I guess great minds do think alike!! lol

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  8. I think this sounds like a lot of fun, but my stash isn't very big...although I guess that could make it more interesting too. :)

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  9. That's a great game. I would love to try it.

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  10. And she's back!!! hope u had a great holiday!

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  11. What a great idea. I love to browse Design Seeds and I must admit, picking fabrics is my least favourite part of quilting. This just may be the thing to get me more motivated. Thanks for sharing this.

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  12. THANK YOU for the mini lesson!! I need help in this area...and your photos showed very well how to PLAY the GAME!!

    I read once to look at cereal boxes etc for color combos...advertisers use COLOR to catch the eye to their product...

    Thanks again..love it!

    HOPE

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  13. I LOVE this idea! I would like to play :) In fact, I like the idea of doing it weekly - like every Tuesday or Thursday or something.

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