Finally--putting blocks together

Sorry for the myriad delays. Life gets in the way sometimes.
Putting blocks together is one of the easiest parts of a quilt as long as you had some semblance of accuracy. In general, if you put your blocks in a pile and they are all about the same size, you're good. If there are some noticeable differences, you should probably square them up. To square up your blocks, you pick the least common denominator (if your blocks are supposed to be 10" but you have one that's 9.25", you'll be trimming them all down to 9.25"). Then, fold the block in half and half again, so your block is a quarter of the size. Then divide your trim size by two (so we'll go with 4 5/8") and line up the folded edges of your block with that line on your ruler going both directions and trim. That way, you trim an equal amount from around the edges so theoretically the block is still centered correctly. You can also try to find a square ruler in the appropriate size, but there are only so many square rulers on the market.

Sorry I don't have pictures. I've never squared my blocks up, for better or worse. It's something I'm aware how to do, just in case I ever need to, but I avoid because I'm lazy and not that anal.

Onward then, to the laying out and sewing!

My pattern was on-point, which means that the squares' points are oriented towards the top and sides, rather than the corners. Regular setting is when you put each block side to side and then one row directly on top of the other. The principles are the same, but on point is a little more complicated because everything is on the diagonal and you have setting triangles (which your pattern will instruct you on cutting).

The first step is to lay your blocks out how you want them to be. Some quilts are a bunch of the same blocks, in which case you can skip this step. My blocks were all the same construction, but different fabric, so I put them on my design wall to decide the layout. Below is my layout (once it's all sewn together :)
So, once I'm happy with my blocks' positions, then I start sewing. For regular setting, line up your blocks just like you would have your block components and sew, locking seams where you can. For on point, I had to sew setting triangles to my first "row" which is really just a single block in the upper left. When sewing a triangle to a square, you want to line up the right angle side of the triangle, but again, lay it out to make sure your triangle is pointed the right way.
See how there's a flap of triangle hanging down? That's okay, extra is good. Too small is sad. Unless the pattern is wrong, you should have at least a little hangover (the only good hangover). On the above block, I sewed along the right hand side.

I like to complete a row and sew it to the next row, but you can complete all your rows and then connect them, whatever works. So here are my first two rows (note that I'm holding my camera at a 45 degree angle)
When I go to sew these together, again I have all sorts of triangle flaps hanging out, so it's a little confusing to line up (those of you with straight set are lucky, you can just sew the buggers together). The best way to be accurate is to line up the block seams and let whatever triangle business is hanging over hang over.
I make sure and press my block seams in opposite directions as I construct each row so I can line them up and lock as shown above. Then I get this:
And a close up of the triangle business on the corners.
You just keep plugging away until the whole quilt is constructed. There are a couple tips for managing so much fabric that I recommend. The first is to make sure you keep everything you can in your lap or off to the side on your sewing table, mainly because the weight can really pull if you let it drop all the way to the floor. You'll want to help your feed dogs out a little more than you would with smaller chunks.
I also really hold the pieces together a lot more when I sew blocks and rows together. If you're inclined, you might want to pin at this stage. I prefer to just adjust as I go.
You can kind of see how the majority of the fabric is piled off to my left, I'm firmly holding the seam together and sewing in short bursts so I can rearrange easily. Put your needle down into the fabric before you readjust and it will hold everything in place.


The other thing I do as I sew things together is adjust for minor errors in measurement. Sometimes you'll have a little piece that isn't even, and rather than trimming everything up, I line up to sew over it and regain accuracy by ignoring it. In the example below, the one piece of the block stuck out, so I maintained my quarter inch on the other block and ignored the pink piece sticking out.
So there you have it. Sewing the blocks together really is easy. If you have anything that's directional or needs to be oriented a certain way, I definitely recommend sewing two things together, putting them back on your design wall (floor, bed, whatever ;) to make sure everything is still oriented correctly. Even I, the queen of chaining, rarely chain blocks together for fear of getting all mucked up with my orientation or positioning.
On Friday, I'll show you borders, but next week I'm on vacation, so I won't be posting, but I'll be back the last week of July to commence the quilting and binding, the final stages of our quilt!
Happy quilting!

The sub-cut and onward.

Strip piecing is such a common practice in quilting that there is hardly ever a pattern where you don't sew some pieces together and then sub-cut them into smaller pieces and re-sew them. Obviously there are patterns out there that don't have strip piecing, but most easy patterns have strip piecing.
So for my project, there were two strip-pieced units per block, so I'll go through the subcutting and sewing to complete one block.
Most strip piecing allows for a little to square up after stripping. You can see that my top strip set is off on the left hand side.
So I square up that strip set. Then I measure and cut (below).

I continue to cut the appropriate number of subcut units from each strip. In my case, I needed four subunits from each unit, plus the squares I cut earlier to make a block.
My subunits ready to go.
So I lay them out as they'll be in a block. Now to be honest, I would cut ALL of my subunits for ALL of my blocks and then chain piece them, BUT if you are at all worried that you'll get things switched around, do it one block at a time. There's nothing wrong with doing that, because if you get them mixed up, it won't be faster because you'll have to rip.
I'm a chain maniac, I chain not only everything in one quilt, but I'll chain multiple projects at a time (and yes, that has led to some interesting sewing mishaps--the price you pay to be a quilting speed demon).
There's my block laid out and ready to be sew. I'll sew it in rows with three subunits per row.

Before you sew, lay the pieces together and see if there are any seams that should match up. If there are, you'll see the reason that the direction you press your seam matters. When seam lines match up, you can do something called locking the seam by butting the two ledges of the seams against each other. From the side it would look like this:
See how they're pointing opposite directions? That means when you iron the seam you're about to make, it will lay nice and flat and you'll get a nice precise point that way.

If something should go wrong as you sew the seams, you will have to rip. Many sewing machines come with a seam ripper, but they're usually dull and small, so I recommend getting one at your local quilt shop. You will need it at some point.

There are myriad ways to rip or unsew, but the one least likely to stretch your fabric is to slide your seam ripper under about every third or fourth stitch and cut it.

See how the ripper blade is under the stitch, but not cutting the fabric. Do that all along the seam, every few stitches.
Here's a seam ready to finish the rip (if you can see it :) Now gently pull the two pieces a part and one side should have a bunch of little threads and the other will have one long piece of thread. Pick these out and you're ready to resew.
Here I've got the three rows together. You always want to sew anything you can in rows (or columns) first. Occasionally beginning quilters get a wild hair and want to sew the four units in the corner together and then sew the others on. You will end up asking yourself how the hell to continue sewing it together. Most patterns are pretty good about specifying which things to sew together in which order, but some assume you can figure it out.

So finally I sew my three rows together, and I've pressed so all my seams will interlock. Here's the finished block:
And from the back you can see how neat the seam allowances look when all the pressing is done correctly.
Voila! One block down. Next time I'll show you how to put them together, then borders, then quilting, then binding!
Happy quilting!

Plan B

Well folks, I'm still hurtin', but not as bad. Surgery is out, thank goodness. I may do some physical therapy, but I'm still basically trying to avoid spending any more money on my injuries.
The short of it however, is that I'm still not up to cutting more than a little at a time and Cappuccino requires a massive amount of cutting. So, plan B is to work on a quilt called Bloom Creek Blossoms, by Atkinson, using a Swanky Jelly Roll by Moda. I'd already cut up my jelly roll and the cream for the background and the center squares that you can see on the pattern (theirs are black, mine are fairy frost brown) pre-injury, so it was a good candidate.


Jelly rolls and their ilk (bali pops, charm packs, layer cakes, etc...) are all excellent ways to avoid having to think too hard about your fabric choice. If you don't mind that part, they're still fun because they're already cut and you get a great variety of fabric for a "scrappy" but coordinated look. That's why I like them. In general picking fabric is my favorite part (I pick out way more fabric for quilts than I have quilt tops), but I do like the pre-cuts for the fun variety.

As we begin sewing, I'd like to remind you that sewing, particularly straight lines and such, is not difficult. Like all things, it might take a little getting used to, but it's not hard. Do not be scared. The first simple rule to remember as it will be the case any time you're piecing (not applique) anything: RIGHT sides together. When we refer to right sides, we mean the pretty side of the fabric that was actually printed. You will find that many batiks don't have a right and wrong side, which can be great, but you also need to be careful that you don't end up with seams going every which way. Another rule to remember about QUILTING, not all sewing, is that in 99% of all patterns, you use a 1/4" seam. This is very important. If you've sewn garments, you're probably used to a 5/8" seam. Obviously this is a huge difference. Many machines have what is called a quarter inch foot (it usually has a little flap that keeps your fabric from drifting too far to the right).

If you've never used your sewing machine, get out your manual and play a little. I dare not try to cover everything about a sewing machine in this blog because machines vary wildly by model and brand and it's best to just get down and dirty and get acquainted by sewing. Thread it up with your chosen piecing thread. I personally like Superior's So Fine. It's actually a spun polyester, but please remember that all polyesters are NOT created equal. Do not piece your quilt with cheap, bargain bin thread. You've invested in a machine, in fabric, a pattern or book and you're about to invest a whole lot of time, pretty please don't ruin the experience with crappy thread. Some other nice options are Aurifil, Masterpiece (by superior), Mettler's 100% cotton. I do not like Coats and Clark Dual Duty, it is made for garment sewing and mending and it just isn't nice to work with, but it is cheap. If you get cheap polyester, you run the risk of having it tear your quilt. So Fine and other quality polyesters will not tear your quilt. Obviously you make the choice, but I really do recommend investing in good thread. Get a nice neutral cream color to start (unless you're doing all dark fabrics, then get black or gray).

So let's get started. Look at your instructions and after the cutting it will undoubtedly say something about putting, sewing, piecing, etc...two fabrics together. Lay those two pieces together (you may be pairing two pieces up 20 times or more) with their right sides together and line them up. Fabric likes to cuddle itself, so it should stick fairly well. Make sure the edges you're seaming together (that's the one that counts) are lined up. Also make sure you're sewing along the appropriate side. Sometimes it doesn't matter, but often it does. Pay attention to pictures and diagrams for the placement.
I'm peeling it back to show you the edges are lined up (the pinked (those little mountains and valleys are called pinking in sewing, who knows why) edges are a little obnoxious to line up, but it's the peaks, not the valleys that you should line up.

Put it under the foot of your sewing machine, lower the foot, gently depress the pedal and the feed dogs (the little teeth that move underneath the foot when you sew) will pull the fabric through. Let the feed dogs do the work: do not push, do not pull. Simply gently guide the fabric so it stays straight. Remember how stretchy our fabric can be and don't get too tuggy with it. If you do need to adjust and realign, stop sewing and gently "scratch" the top fabric to line up with the bottom. Gentle is the key word here, don't maul it.

Note that the right edge is lined up with that little black flap on my foot. That's the advantage of the quarter-inch foot. Also note that my hand is just gently resting on the fabric, not pushing or pulling.


Now, lots of quilters pin everything before sewing. I do not do this, I think it's a waste of time, so if you feel the need to pin, that's your business, I'm not even going to cover it here, but I will say, for the sake of your sewing machine, pull the pins out before you stitch over them. 90% of the time, you can stitch right over the pin, but man, that 10% when you hit the pin dead on is really hard on the ol' machine.

The only situation I pin is if I'm setting in a circle. Since we're not there yet, I suggest you set aside your pins and learn to piece without. I may not be a traditional quilter, and I'm sure I regularly piss off the quilt police, but damn, I'm an efficient quilter with pretty good accuracy. I know that in this day and age, we're all very busy, so you have to make the most of your time. Value your time: don't pin :)

Okay, so you've sent your first piece through the machine and you're getting ready to lift your foot, cut your threads and do the next. STOP! Don't do it! Here's another tip on efficiency: chain piece everything you can. Chain piece? You ask, head cocked to the side. Chaining or chain piecing is when you sew one unit after another without cutting the thread or even lifting the foot. The front part of a foot is curved up just slightly, and if you tuck your next unit underneath the foot as shown in the picture below, when you hit the gas again, the feed dogs will grab it and pull it under the needle and VOILA! You've now chained two things together. Some machines (mine included) also have what's called a knee lift which is a bar that sits by your leg that you can push to the side (with your leg, I've seen people use their hand, that defeats the purpose) to lift your sewing machine foot. This is especially handy when chaining because I can lift the foot a little and tuck the the fabric under there without ever using my hands. Another handy thing to have on your machine is a needle down function which makes the needle drop completely any time you stop. You can see in the picture below that my needle is down. It just prevents the previous unit from trying to get in your way by sliding back forward. (This becomes more of a problem as your pile of chained units grows).

Another thing that you may read and may choose to do which I do not, especially if I'm strip piecing (more on that next time), is back or lock stitch. Your machine may have a u-turn button, or an R button, or something of that nature that you press to make your machine sew backwards. Now, there is a time and a place for reversing, but it is not while you're chaining. Ultimately, everything in your quilt will be secured by the overlap of seams, but more importantly by quilting or tying. So, seriously, don't bother unless it's expressly indicated by the pattern. Back stitching is typically used to secure seams that you're going to be manipulating or not enclosed, like Y-seams or miters. We'll cover miters when we do borders, so you'll get some back stitching under your belt. Until then, once again, I recommend not wasting your precious time.

Okay, chain your way on through the pile of pieces that step one of your pattern calls for. And if step two is also sewing some other units together, sew those together too. Chain until you can chain no more. Then snip the little buggers apart.

My little pile of chained units, which will grow into a BIG pile as I have sixty four things to sew together for the first two steps.

Now comes the part that is the bane of my quilting existence: pressing. Okay, it's not actually that bad, it can just be a little time consuming and I would rather be piecing or cutting or quilting.

Most patterns will indicate which way you should press using a little arrow. Some will say something like "Press toward the focus fabric". Pressing is your friend (even if it is a little boring). Pressing can fix all manner of errors, but it can also create them, so press like you mean it. In my pattern the arrow indicates that I should press toward the "main" fabric in each block (as opposed to the contrast fabric). So, I put a picture below showing how the seam should lay, it should "point" like the arrow toward the main fabric (the green in this case).
This is shot from the back, obviously, as that is where your seam allowance should be. If you make a mistake, fear not, next time I will cover ripping, aka unsewing.

In order to press well, first lay your unit with the fabric that the seam is supposed to be pressed toward up. Pressing means that you set your iron on it, pick it up and set. Do not rub around any more than necessary because it distorts the fabric. This is call setting the seam.
Above is how it should look while you set it.

Then pick up the open edge of the top fabric, lift and push it back. Use your iron to carefully push that one back onto the seam allowance. You shouldn't push so hard that your thread starts peeking through, but don't be so gentle that you're left with a little fat roll of fabric hanging out there. It should lay flat.

In the rare case that the pattern doesn't indicate, the general rule is that you press toward the darker fabric, that way there's no risk of the darker part of the seam showing through the lighter fabric.

On Tuesday we'll move on to subcutting, until then, happy chaining, pressing, quilting, etc!

Cutting like a samurai.

Okay, we've picked our pattern, we've got the fabric (maybe a little more than we need ;) and now we're finally ready to cut! Let us start with a basic lesson in fabric and quilting terms related to cutting. The first term that really threw me off was selvage. Selvage? Right....Well, a selvage is a part of every woven fabric and it's the edges where it's attached the loom. On most printed cottons and flannels it is easily identifiable not only because on one side of the fabric is usually white with print on it and on the other it is either white, or the color of fabric, but has noticeable little holes in it. Batiks are trickier. In the picture below, the batik is on the left, and there really isn't much notice of the selvage except a slightly denser weave. The design on a batik also doesn't usually extend onto the selvage.

Another term you will see in full or in abbreviation is "width of fabric" of WOF. To someone who's sewn, this is obvious, but to others, it's not necessarily. WOF is from selvage to selvage, and almost without exclusion, when cutting instructions refer to cutting "strips" they mean, from selvage to selvage. Typically WOF is between 40" and 45" but never count on more than 40" of usable (ie--not selvage) fabric.
Some patterns also refer to "fat quarters" which are often used in scrappy quilts or smaller, lap quilts. A quarter yard is 9" x 4oish"...A fat quarter is a half yard (18") cut in half at the fold--so 18"x20ish"--hence the name fat quarter: same area, different perimeter, geometrically speaking. If you see little folded up bits of fabric laying all over the place in quilt stores, they are likely (always ask if you aren't sure) fat quarters. Obviously a fat quarter will only have one selvage edge on it.
Our last terms will explain why I don't recommend triangles right out of the gates. Fabric has three "directions": the lengthwise grain, which runs parallel to the selvages; the crosswise grain, which runs from selvage to selvage (width-wise would've been hard to say, methinks); and finally the bias which runs at a 45 degree angle to either grain. The lengthwise grain is hardly stretchy at all (you see in clothing patterns an arrow that you're supposed to align with the "grain" which usually means either length or cross), the crosswise grain has a little more, and the bias, whoa nelly, the bias has some serious stretch, which can be handy, but can also be sad when you're trying to sew to triangles together and they stretch and warp and your quilt ends up looking more like a 3D landscape of rolling hills and valleys. In the pictures below I'm applying the same amount of pressure to all three.
The lengthwise grain. No stretch here!
Crosswise grain--a wee bit of stretch.
The bias...streeeeetchy.

Okay, so there's your intro to fabric. Now let's get a-cutting. You will need three tools: a rotary cutter (a circular razor blade on a stick), a self-healing cutting mat, and a ruler of some sort. For your first ruler, I usually recommend a 8.5"x24" or 8.5"x12 or a 6.5"x24". I like the wider 8.5" because I think they're more useful. Individual brands of these things are really a matter of preference and if you stick with quilting, you will probably end up with multiple rulers, cutters, and mats. There are more gadgets than you can shake a stick at these days.

Now, if you prewashed your fabric, you need to iron it to get it back in the general shape that it was before you washed it (ie--selvages aligned, nice crease along the length of the fabric). If you didn't (and I never do) hooray! You're ready to cut. *A quick note on ironing: try to lift and press, not rub around. Rubbing around distorts the fabric.

Many quilters leave fabric just as it rolls off the bolt to cut it (only folded in half once), but I personally believe that the longer the distance you have to go from start of cut to finish of cut, the more likely you are to slip or get crooked, or any number of mishaps. So I fold mine again, taking the fold from the bolt up to the selvage, leaving the fabric about 11" wide.
Obviously I've just got the corner turned back there so you can see what's what. You'll want it nice and straight before you start cutting, but you want to align the selvage edge (if the selvages aren't perfectly aligned, and they never are, just leave them be) to the fold, don't try to align the cut edges. We're going to square them up. So, if you're right handed, lie the ruler on top of the fabric above and slide it over to the right until there's just a little of each layer sticking out on the right side. Then you will use the dots or lines on your ruler and pick one to line up along the bottom fold of your fabric as shown below.
If your cutting mat has a grid on it, do NOT use this to measure or square up. Mats are not very accurate for starters, but they get less so every cut you make. As you cut on the lines, you put them open with your rotary cutter, and pretty soon they aren't even there any more. I'm not too adamant about how people do things in quilting, but do NOT use your mat as anything more than a surface or a guesstimate (if you just want to see if you have a quarter yard or a third, use your mat, not if you're cutting a 2.5" strip). The other reason I encourage using your ruler to measure is that it's more efficient because you don't have to fix the whole piece of fabric any time it shifts. So, if you've done a little quilting and cut with your mat, now's the time to switch.
Once you're all aligned, go ahead and cut off the little piece sticking out. There are many cutters on the market, so find one that you like. I personally only use the straight stick cutters because I cut with both hands (more on that in a minute). Here is the proper way to hold a straight cutter:
You can see that I've opened the blade, my hand is fairly relaxed and the majority of my motion will be in a downward direction. Many quilters have trouble cutting multiple layers because they put too much forward on their rotary cutter. Because it's a circle, if you put downward pressure, it will roll forward. In the real world I would be holding my ruler as pictured below:
But I have to have a hand to take the picture. Spread out your fingers, using the tips, not your palm and press firmly down, not forward or sideways, but down. Once you're comfortable with your hand position, the alignment of your dots along the bottom, cut off the little guys on the right. Always, always, always close your cutter when you're finished. They are extremely sharp and if you forget where you set it and it's open, you can give yourself a nasty cut. Or your pets, or children, or wayward spouses.

Now the reason I cut with both hands is to save time. I'm not ambidextrous, and my left hand is fairly useless for everything outside the quilting world, but you'll be surprised how quickly your weak hand learns new tricks. SO, that being said, I strongly recommend you learn to cut with both hands. The reason is that then I can square up like this:
And never move my fabric to proceed to cutting. If you squared up with your right hand (or if you're left handed, as above), you will now need to carefully flip the fabric so the squared up side is on your left (or on your right if you're a lefty). Each time you move the fabric a). takes time and b). hinders the quest for accuracy.
Okay, so you've got your square edge on the opposite side of your strong hand and your pattern says you need some width of strip. Most patterns are good about saying X strips, subcut into Y rectangles, squares, whatever, but sometimes a pattern just says you need to cut 35--5" squares. If that's the case, assume fabric is 40" wide and figure out how many strips you'd need. (For that example, you'll get 8 out of each, and therefore need 5 strips, leaving you with five extra squares--extra happens, it's okay). So my first cut is to make 6" squares so I'm going to cut a 6" strip. Line up the 6" line of the ruler with the edge of the fabric (be careful here, some rulers have a half-inch on one edge, make sure it's not throwing you off):
Now, this picture is the reason we measure TWICE, cut ONCE. Although, truth be told, I just read the pattern wrong. Anyway, so I cut a 5" strip. I lined up the left edge of the fabric with the 5" line all along and then also lined up the dots along the fold at the bottom, just to make sure everything is still square.
Then you cut along the right side of the ruler, being sure not to slip around. You can continue cutting strips by just taking the cut one out of your way and moving the ruler down the rest of the fabric.
Once I've cut my 5" strip, in order to make 5" squares, I need to subcut the strip. To do this, I turn it 90 degrees, square up the end by cutting the selvages off (I usually leave it folded in half, not in fourths, like it was when I cut the strip) and proceed to cut just like you do with strips. And voila! You have your squares. You can even layer strips on top of each other if you want.

Bear in mind that a lot of quilts use "strip-piecing" techniques where rather than subcut the initial strip, you sew two or more strips together and then subcut them. Cappuccino doesn't use this technique, but I'll take pictures of another project to show you as it is VERY handy and some pattern-writers don't have you do it when you could.

Happy Cutting! Please don't hesitate to comment or email if you have questions.

Colors, fabrics, and prints, oh my!

Fabric, or perhaps more abstractly, color, is what brings many of us into the quilting sphere. I started quilting, sort of, in the summer of 2003. My mom quilts pretty casually. She does a ton of needlepoint, but has done a decent amount of quilting. So that summer I decided that it was about damn time she make me a quilt. Off we went to Little Timber Quilts for me to help her select fabric to make me a rag quilt. I'd been to Joann's and Hancock's, those sort of fabric stores, but never been overly excited about making anything more complex than a cape for Halloween. Walking through the door of LTQ was immediately appealing to me. I've painted since I was 12, so I LOVE color and texture...and here I was surrounded by all different colors and textures and ready made little paintings. My mother knew almost immediately that she had created a monster. I picked out the fabric for her to make me that quilt, but I ended up making it for myself. Before that though, I picked out fabric for a quilt to redo my bedroom (a log cabin, still not quilted)...then I picked out fabric for another project (a Lucky Stars, by Atkinson's Designs)...then another (a Yellow Brick Road that she and I took a class together to do) See pictures of three yellow brick roads I made very early in my quilt career...and then that fateful day when I bought my first fat quarter with no purpose. I just loved it.
The Yellow Brick Roads are all draped in the top of the picture. Three of the first quilts I finished.

So that's my story. I to this day have a fabric problem. Last year it really came home that I am a fabric collector, not just a quilter who happens to have a lot of fabric. I made the quilt pictured below because I loved the line with all the browns and oranges (yes, it made many people want to throw-up, but I love it!)

...I made the blocks and chose to sash it in this great orange fabric with black and metallic gold spider webs. I took enough home to sash the quilt. Finito, voila, lovely, I have fabric I love in a quilt I love, right? NO! I agonized about the spider web fabric. I couldn't sleep because there was only about a yard left on the bolt at the store, and I knew I should sell it so I can attempt to make a living. Finally, in tears (fabric doesn't often bring me to tears, but occasionally), I called my mom for advice. Sobbing, I sniffled about how I might want to make something else someday with the spider webs, and what if I never found it again, and blah blah blah. My poor mother sighs in exasperation and tells me that it's okay if I want a little extra of the spider fabric. So I gleefully took home the last little bit of the fabric and I can tell you right now that it will never get cut up unless it's my very last piece of fabric. I just had to have some of it to pull out and pet occasionally. Now, don't worry if you're just starting, this doesn't happen to most people (or at least I don't think it does). I'm an extreme fabric addict with no intention or desire for reform. I control my addiction by owning a fabric store, so I get contact with tons of pretty fabric every day so I don't have to take it all home. The moral of this tale, however, is that if you really love a fabric, for Pete's sake, buy some extra if you can afford it. A little fabric sometimes equals a lot of happiness.

Which brings me to my next point, and then I'll get on with my actual lesson. Fabrics do come in different qualities, as you will notice by the different prices found in independent quilt shops and chains like WalMart or JoAnn's. I am not a quilt shop nazi. Obviously I want and hope that everyone who quilts will shop at independents to keep us alive and fed and keep beautiful fabric on the market, but I myself have been a quilter without much of an income, and I know that sometimes you just can't afford the better stuff. So I will say only this: buy the best you can afford. Your projects will last longer, be more beautiful, feel nicer, etc...but don't beat yourself up if you have to use cheap fabric--it's the journey not the destination and your first few quilts probably aren't going to be heirloom quality anyway. The same advice applies for sewing machines, tools, etc...Buy the best you can afford, it will be worth it in the long run.
A quick note: there are three main types of quilting fabric and they are all 100% cotton: cotton prints, batiks, and flannel. Cottons and batiks work fine together, but flannel is best kept by itself (though you can use it as the back of a quilt to make it soft. I suggest Wikipedia if you want to know the differences amongst these three. As to a question that you will find addressed with differing levels of passion in various quilting publications, to prewash or not to prewash? There is no right answer, do what you want. I hate prewashing and have never prewashed a single piece of fabric in my life and I wash all my quilts and dry them on hot and have never had a problem, so, there you go. I will say that I have found cheaper fabric tends to bleed more, so if you don't prewash, use those color catcher sheets you put in the wash. Also, it's all or nothing: you can't just prewash your reds and leave the rest as cotton does shrink and when you then wash the top, the red is preshrunk and the rest isn't: you'll be sad.

Okay, now to the actual picking of fabrics. There are three main factors to consider when choosing fabric: color (first and foremost), value (second, only slightly), and print (a more minor, but still important part).

Most of us who graduated from kindergarten at least know the basics of color (or did at one point ;). The primaries--red, blue, and yellow--combine to make secondaries--purple, green, and orange--all of which can combine to make tertiaries and on and on to make all the various shades in between, like reddish pink purple or light bluey green. Knowing combinations of color is not really necessary in quilting like it is in painting, but a little color knowledge can help you make informed decisions.
The color wheel is such an excellent tool for color decisions if you know what kind of effect you're going for. One of the easiest ways to choose fabric is to go with a monochromatic color scheme where you use various shades, tints, and hues of said color. So, say all greens (and creams, but black and white don't really count as "colors" unless they're all you're using) like my quilt on the left below, or all blues, like the one in the middle. Monochromatic quilts are very peaceful, but can also run the risk of boring, so it's good to have a little zazz in there--the shiny cream in the green, the silver polka-dot in the blue. The close cousin of monochromatic is analogous. Analogous just means that they are next to each other on the color wheel. So, blues-greens-yellows, or even just blues--blue greens--greens or say from green to orange on the wheel above. Analogous colors also tend to feel pretty calm and peaceful, but do run the same risk of being boring if you don't pick either a dominant color or an interesting focus piece. A focus fabric is typically a larger print with several colors and cannot obviously be categorized as light or dark, one color or another. The quilt on the right below rides on the focus fabric, a blue and green tropical leaf print, a lot as well as the black for zazz.
I realize that the picture isn't very big, but since we're examining color, that's okay. You can instantly see that the first two are more calm than the third. Bear in mind that if you don't like green or blue, you will not like any of these quilts, so try to imagine them in a different colorway, like red or purple, or whatever your favorites are. You may already be seeing a pattern in my quilts. I do a lot of analogous and monchromatic quilts. Also a lot of blue and green.

That being said, I'm not just a one trick pony. For a flashier quilt, one of the quickest ways to get some pop (also a nice way to add some spice to a monochromatic number) is to use complimentary colors. Go back up to the color wheel and look. Complimentary colors basically are two colors that when mixed together will make brown or black and are always opposite on the color wheel. Scientifically color gets very complicated, so we'll just stick to visual color which is what you see when you mix paint or crayons or something of that nature. You'd think that when you put complimentary colors next to each other you'd get a visual muddying since they make brown, but that's not what happens. In fact because they're on opposite sides of the color wheel, they pop when next to each other. Blue and orange, purple and yellow, reddish purple and green, they all really pop. In the quilt below I used a very pale blue as the background and orange for the flowers and it just really pops.
Most people hear blue and orange and think "Blech" but it really works, even for people who don't like these colors--they think the quilt is pretty. I've had a number of people unable to say why they like this quilt, but I'd be willing to bet it's the visual appeal of the colors because the pattern has it with a white background and pink flowers and it just doesn't work for people.
Those are your basic color schemes that are nameable, but another awesome way to choose colors is to pick a focus fabric you like, or a theme (say Christmas, fall, winter) and go with that as a starting point. Below is a grouping of "fall" fabrics we put together just thinking of fallish colors.
Here again though, your color wheel can help you. On the wheel above, you'll notice that it has arrows around the outside that say "warm" and "cool"...In general you can intuitively feel this about colors--red is a warm color, but you it can have cooler or warmer shades depending on whether it's got more blue or more yellow making it more purple (and therefore cooler) or more orange (and therefore warmer). Fall and summer colors tend to be warm, while winter is cool, and spring is a mix of the two (think crisp cool blue skies or clouds, juxtaposed with vibrant, warm red tulips and yellow daffodils). Again, temperature is a great way to tie your quilt together--if you want to do a green and purple quilt, choose all cool, or all warm versions of greens and purples and it will meld a little better.
The second way I mentioned involves a focus fabric. That's how I chose colors for this quilt, even though the focus ended up being a tiny part of it (find it if you can!):
I probably wouldn't have combined these particular fabrics without that guide. Below is another example of choosing a focus fabric that I really love and choosing colors to go with it:
I love the fish print, so I chose a bunch of fabrics that I liked, then pared it down a little:
Which brings us to our other considerations: value (lightness or darkness) and scale of print (the size of the elements on a fabric). The fish fabric above is a large-scale print that I would use as a focus fabric, but that's not to say you can't cut it into tiny pieces. Focus fabrics are not necessarily going to be huge chunks or borders, they serve as a bridge to tie the rest of the quilt together. Scale is an important part of choosing fabric because variety is the spice of quilting, as well as life. If you pick all huge prints, the quilt will be muddled and confusing for me, at least. Some designers and pattern writers like using all huge prints, so you know, take my advice with a grain of salt. I like to throw in small scale and medium scale prints because then there are places for your eyes to "rest" if there's pieces of big prints every which where, your eyes just constantly flutter over the quilt and can never pause long enough to decide what the heck is going on. SO, that's my two cents. Below is an example of similar colors in negligible (in quilting we refer to these as "reading as solid") print, small print, medium print, and large print. All of these would fill (more or less) the same color and value role, just different texture as a result of the print size.
On the note of "reading as solid", I never actually use solid anything in my quilts. Unless you're going for an Amish or antique look, I just don't think they're as visually appealing or attractive as something that reads as a solid. That's all I'll say about print.
Next in my culling is value. Value is best described as where the color would fall on a scale of black to white if you took a black and white photo of it. There are tools for seeing value if you have trouble (they are little pieces of red, transparent plastic, or green, transparent plastic). In general though I think it's good to practice seeing value with the naked eye. If you're having trouble, go to a color section and find the lightest one and try to order them, stand back, squint and see if anything looks out of place, and continue. Quilt shop employees may wonder what you're doing, but for the most part, we're a passive lot. Below is a French Braid that made use of value changes to create the "glow" effect.
You can see there's one piece that sticks out more in some braids than others because there was a wide range of values within it, but also because it's cooler than the others. The lesson is: if it bothers you before you sew it together, it will bother you after even more, so fix it before you sew. Hahahha, if only I took my own advice. Oh well, I still love it. Below I also pulled a light, a medium, and a dark of blue, green, and purple so you could see how they feel the same even though they're different colors (the light blue is just a sliver at the bottom--sorry, I didn't realize how crappy the picture was until after I'd put all the fabric away).
Here again, some people sew with all mediums and don't like contrast, but I think one of the most important parts of a quilt is the contrast in values...Go back up to the blue and orange quilt--doesn't that dark blue really snap up the light stuff? The flowers and leaves are mediums, but having those lights and darks makes a huge difference, so in general I think it's good to have contrast, and balance--mediums, lights, and darks.
There are some tricksters out there, where you want to think it's a light because it has a light background, or that it's a dark because there's black on it, but in general, most prints that are all over the value board ultimately average out and read as mediums. The three prints below are excellent examples of these tricky fabrics. Don't be afraid to use them, they cut up and sew up just as nicely, they can just throw you off in a big ol' piece on the bolt.
So there you have it, now you can go forth and choose fabrics for your quilt, with at least these loose guidelines and opines from me. Again, I don't really feel that there are rules in quilting and if some combination of fabrics floats your canoe, just go with it--it's your quilt, sewing on fabric you love is the whole point!

One last tidbit of advice for those still wary of picking fabric (many an experienced quilter hates that part)--if you're really scared, the brave new world of quilting we're in has come in to save you. Many beginner patterns work really well for jelly rolls and bali pops (40--2.5" strips from a line of fabrics or batiks), layer cakes (10" squares of a whole coordinated line), or charm squares (5" squares), so pick one of those up and sew away, but try to analyze what you like about the combinations of colors and prints: that will help you to make your own choices in the future.

Finally, a note on buying fabric. In my own quilting life, but especially as a quilt shop owner, I have experienced the tragedy of not being able to get more of a specific print. To those of you who don't know, there is only one fabric manufacturer of cotton prints (batiks tend to be more loosey goosey about reprinting) that reprints their fabric. The rest print a set number of bolts, and when it's gone, it's gone, they don't print it again (except in exceptional cases like the Very Hungry Caterpillar, where they were making so much money they'll probably never stop printing that). This can be very frustrating if you bought something three years ago and get around to sewing with it and wish you had a half yard more. There are sadly no hard and fast rules for how much of anything you should buy, but in my quilting experience (I've made over 30 quilts, and probably about 40 tops that need quilting--not bad, especially since 90% of those are from the past two years) a print you really love that isn't especially large, I never buy less than two yards. If it's large, I buy four. If I want it as a border, I buy four. If it's a blender, at least 1. Why these numbers? Because usally if I love something, I want to build around it, and most patterns that call for a focus fabric never call for much less than two yards. If you only make miniatures, you can probably adjust this. This also leaves me room to recover from cutting errors, and maybe even have a little left over for my fabric petting zoo. I get a lot of grief for just trying to oversell people, but honestly, on this, I have so many women come through, frantically searching for something they bought years ago and didn't get enough of, that I'm only pushing for you to get that extra fabric in your own self-interest. I also tend to like my quilts to match, so that scrappy "I didn't have enough of this red" look is just not appealing to me, but if you like that look, you probably care less if your reds don't match. Again, just my opinion, but hard earned (I used to only buy fat quarters, and I still have most of them), so like all my advice, take it or leave it.

Well, here's my stockpile that I've selected for my Cappuccino quilt and Tuesday we can start talkng tools of the trade, cutting, and more!

Until then, happy quilting (and fabric shopping!)!