I have a question for quilters and sewists and other people who utilize fabric collections:
For the patterned companion fabrics in a given collection, do you prefer to have a pattern in every color, or one pattern in two colors, and another pattern in a different two colors. I am designing a fabric collection that uses essentially a basic 6-color rainbow, and don’t know if it is somehow gauche to make a simple small-scale pattern in all the colors. I notice that a lot of collections do not do that, so the companion fabrics might have three or four different simple patterns, and each only utilize a handful of the colors, but I also have thought to myself, and imagine others must have too, gosh I wish I had THIS pattern in THAT color. So, is it breaking some unwritten rule of keep them just a little frustrated? Or what?
I’m not a quilter, and don’t generally use multiple fabrics in a single project, but often wish I could get that print in this color. The more choices, the merrier!
Many times I have thought this print should be available in multiple colors at the same time. I just responded to survey from Joann about this topic and told them yes offer this print in multiple colors at the same time.
While I don’t quilt, I do love novelty and quilting prints and often wish they were offered in different colorways. For me this is usually wanting it in a non-light-colored background or a version that is mostly cooler colors. I can’t be trusted with white things, especially as we use a septic system and can’t just bleach things and I look terrible in anything with a yellow undertone so I’m not even going to make pillowcases that are mostly yellow or yellow undertone.
As someone who designs for a hobby - the idea is that each color way should coordinate together in some way BUT sometimes the shapes just don’t like the colors seriously. The dark/light contrast is terrible sometimes.
It could also be that the color you want is sold out! If you look at designers on Print on Demand Places like Spoonflower, they don’t often have all the prints in all the colors but you can ALWAYS ask.
I want all the colors all the time
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(Linda -2024 Choose Projects that You Want to Do :us:)
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I follow a designer on Spoonflower that makes a lot of colors from one pattern, a hibiscus flower. My preference would be that she make a different scale of the flower in a different color. I think a quilt of the same flower in all of the colors would be lovely, but, for anything else, it would be impractical for me…I don’t want the same scale for a lining or a pocket of a bag. I think a good collection has large, medium and small scale patterns with a limited palette of three or four colors.
I’ve been on Spoonflower since 2014, but I’ve mostly done single fabric designs or less cohesive collections, like a number of antique reproductions in related colorways and a variety of scales, but not with a cohesive theme. I’m just trying to get a handle on norms and preferences for fabric collections, because some of the choices some designers make are different than what I’m inclined to do. lol
The scale is something I’m playing with, too. The end goal for this particular collection is to have a number of larger, more novelty prints, with some or all of the 6 colors, but then five or six mid and small scale patterns with a more limited number of colors, down to small scale monochromes in each of the six colors, that are basically textured single colors. Almost like two complete collections of the same prints in two different colorways, but with one or two large prints that link them, and they can be mixed and matched. Does that make sense? Is it too much? Since I don’t do a TON of quilting (yet) I just don’t know if there’s a convention I’m missing.
So the main thing to know is if you are designing for the fabric to be sold to quilt shops they might not buy the whole collection. Moda is a company that if it’s a big collection they sometimes pick a mini collection from the whole one, which makes choices easier for shops. Some shops buy whole collections some only buy part of it.
Personally I prefer collections to stay under 20 fabrics total at most. My favorites are ones that are more like 12 different fabrics. That way I can buy a bit of everything and be more likely to use it. If you go to Moda’s website you should be able to look through their collections that way.
Also most quilt patterns only call for 5-15 fabrics depending on size. And not all patterns work well for big prints.
I should note that most times I include something plain not from the collection. Grunge fabric is a favorite go with for me because they tend to go with everything while having a little texture still. I don’t need a print in every color combo because I can pull that color out with the border.
All super good info. Thank you! I’m not a novice to surface design, but I am an absolute beginner to doing it with real purpose. In the past I have played, but only really for my own enjoyment. I’m still doing it for my own enjoyment, but trying to learn how to be more deliberate, and what is really preferred or expected, so this is great information.
If your idea is to more quilters I would recommend looking up Moda and Birch fabrics. Looking through their catalogs would give you an idea of what works. There are plenty larger collections but when you think about it most shops don’t buy whole collections and most quilters aren’t buying all 25-30 pieces of a collection. So why take the time making a big collection if it’s not being bought.
In a lot of cases, making 6 colors of the same pattern is barely more difficult than making 3, so I honestly just assumed it was better to be thorough. Lol
So here is an example from another project. It’s a reproduction of a piece of fabric salvaged from an 80 year old doll. Once the graphic elements were done, changing the colors is so easy, I made 9 (though I only used 6 for the cheater quilt I printed). It’s a smaller print, and the single color would fill a more tonal spot, I think. There are five colors and gray (some not pictured) with the graphic element in black and white, two that are tone on tone with white (the purple and one of the blues pictured), and the two multi-color designs, of which I actually only ended up liking the primaries color way. Once everything is digitized it’s as easy as point and click to play around with the colors, and I guess maybe I get carried away, thinking sure enough if I only made this pattern in three colors, someone would be disappointed.
I’m more likely to buy a layer cake or charm squares if the collection is too big but I like all the pieces. Mainly because those are the sizes pieces I can use in a quilt without having to spend $150 on a fat quarter of the amount in most of those packs. (That’s for 40 fat quarters). Most of those packs are 15-50 bucks depending on precut size. (I am using quilt shops as a base because that’s where I shop for my cotton fabrics)
It sounds like you might be designing for spoonflower so I’m not sure if they do precut packs. Which for me would lead to not buying much from big collections.
This is actually super helpful for me to comment on.
So this falls under the basics collection for me. A basics collection is one that I would say can be closer to 30 fabrics. Because the fabrics can be used with other collections. This is one that I say make what colors you like and think are worth having. Making a second or third collection with different sizing would also be fun.
I’m sort of designing for spoonflower, but really only because I was designing for self satisfaction. I like to be able to make my own designs to use for stuff, and I like to be able to preserve patterns from antique textiles in a usable way. But yeah, they don’t do precuts. The closest they have is cheater quilts. But the nature of the job I have had for 23 years is about to change a lot, possibly up to going away completely. I have had to think a lot about where I might go from there, so I am sort of trying to see what I would need to understand about trying a real go at using my art for income. And I learn best by doing. Lol
seriously. The dark/light contrast is terrible sometimes.
