Help me adapt this quilt pattern because I'm out of fabric...

November 4, 2023 8:12 PM

I'm making this quilt. I have the first two columns done -- so four stacks of strips. Two are all white (the left edge of the quilt) and one is mostly white (the lower left corner of the tree). The thing is, I realized I'm not going to have enough white fabric and I can't get more. I can get kind of similar stuff, but given that this is a solid block of colour I feel like a sudden change, even if subtle, will show. Please suggest and comment on ways to camouflage.

So let's leave aside for the moment how I ended up here.

I have probably ...80% enough white? In the pictured quilt the artist uses a bunch of different whites. I used ONE white fabric (well, I guess I'm using two). So here are my ideas.

1. Even though I have enough to do a lot more in the original white, I could split it at the halfway point. There's very little "touching" of the two colours at the top or bottom at that central point, so that seems like the point where you'd want to do the switch if you switched.

2. I could make [almost] everything under the tree the other fabrice...like a shadow of sorts? It's not quite as bright a white.

3. I could make [almost] everything under the tree the other fabric, then I could cover up much of it -- especially the points where it touches the other whites) with applique gifts. I haven't really done applique before.

4. Applique for scaredy-cats...I could make some quilted gifts and attach them...somehow...?

Other ideas?

posted by If only I had a penguin... to Grab Bag (15 answers total)

I would try to mix them in a semi-random way that looks balanced, including making some of the remaining blocks with the whites mixed. This means unpicking stitches if you have the blocks sewn into columns and then laying all the blocks out and messing with the layout of white until you’re happy with it, but does assure that you’re happy with it. To me, your proposed solutions would just bother me, your crafting will vary.

You could also choose a fabric to contrast with the white to make it look more intentional (red? gold?) and mix it into the background, but you have enough made that you’ll probably still want to re-set the blocks you have made to incorporate the accent color.
posted by momus_window at 8:27 PM on November 4, 2023 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: To be clear there are not blocks. It's just columns of strips laidin v-shapes. The entire quilt is made only of strips of fabric 1.5" by 4.5".
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:36 PM on November 4, 2023

You might have to do some unpicking. I agree that you’ll want to blend in the new fabric so it looks random, either with a gradation from the center out or all-over random.
posted by janell at 9:01 PM on November 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'd consider getting 3 different colors of yellow/gold and making the background a gradient of white-pale yellow-medium yellow-brightest yellow in the middle, then reverse all the way to two white columns on the right.

Basically, you'll have a tree in front of a white wall with a strong gold light/column in the middle.

To make sure it doesn't look too rough, you could choose the yellows so that they are very close to white.

Alternately, you could do a pale blue gradient, or a zig-zag white border (2 blocks wide on the left, right, top, and bottom) with one color for the rest of the background.
posted by amtho at 11:01 PM on November 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

You could also find or make some fabric that has a color change (simple linear edge or gradient) from off-white to another color, along with a second fabric in that color. Cut blocks from the color change fabric diagonally with the transition in the middle of the pieces, so you can sew them together such that the color change direction is horizontal or vertical, making a squared frame.
posted by amtho at 11:07 PM on November 4, 2023

What if you make the center or chevron part of the quilt smaller, then add a border in a different fabric? Like if the end columns are all-white, just cut those out and add those chevrons to the rest of the quilt, would there be enough white? Same question with the top and the bottom of each column.
posted by muddgirl at 11:43 PM on November 4, 2023

First, I love the pattern.
I would treat the pattern as three vertical sections. The gold star and the red base are the dominant focal points. I would choose a background fabric that emphasizes the center third of the pattern.
Maybe your current white fabric works. Maybe you need to shift gears to add pizzazz to this area.
Mixing fabrics can look "busy," particularly if there are contrasting designs. I would try to keep the background mellow. At most I would have picked a white-on-white subtle pattern, or a solid.
I could see using one background fabric in the center column, transitioning to a second fabric at the one-third points, and then using only the second fabric on the left and right sides.
Or I might add a few pieces of the first fabric within the sides as a spark/snowflake effect. This does not need to be everywhere, just a sprinkle on each side.

I would not put a shadow under the tree. Currently there is no background detail on the pattern (sky, sunlight, grass) so there would not be a shadow.

The border brings everything together. Using both background fabrics would be a good mellow choice.

Ultimately, the random unique nature of quilting is what makes each project special. Embrace the chaos. It's a one-of-a-kind art piece.
posted by TrishaU at 1:56 AM on November 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

I don’t do quilting so I don’t know how difficult this would be, but what if you used your current white fabric to complete a symmetrical border all around the edges? Would you have enough for that? Like a frame that the tree is slightly in front of. Then fill in the center with a white on white tonal print, maybe something with snowflakes or little dashes so it kind of evokes energy or light radiating from the tree. Maybe you’ll have to undo some of your finished work to distribute the original white fabric around evenly.

With the herringbone pattern, you could pick out stacked upsidedown V’s in a frosty green fabric to evoke evergreen trees in snow. This would bring scale and depth into it though and would take a bunch of experimentation probably.

You could try to insert multiple smaller versions of the metallic star on top throughout the background, maybe in a silver instead of gold? Do a single square in the center, do one on each flat side to make a small x, then two squares in cardinal directions from each corner? Not sure how much fabric that would compensate for, but I would do a symmetrical arrangement of the same amount on each side of the tree to echo the abstraction of the original pattern and evoke non figural traditional quilt patterns too.
posted by Mizu at 5:18 AM on November 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

There is a Facebook group called Quilting Perfectly Imperfect. Many, many questions, answers, and suggestions. I would post there to ask this.
posted by Enid Lareg at 6:06 AM on November 5, 2023

Appliqué is finicky, small work. Each piece of, for instance "a gift," needs to be cut, hemmed and sewn with the other pieces of that one gift, and then the whole thing appliquéd onto the quilt.

What people above are calling blocks are just your base shapes. No, it's not a "block" but the diagonal rectangles, either alone or as strips, are your "blocks." Advice above is that you might need to rip out stitches at the block level, i.e., to unstitch the rectangles from each other.

It's difficult to tell from the photo because it doesn't show the whole width of the quilt, but am I right that it has 14 zig-zags of white rectangles left to right? And you've done 4 of them in your white? That's just over 25% of the total quilt. Sorry, but I also vote unstitch all the current rectangles and work in your new fabric. The additional benefit of this is that the muscle memory of ripping those stitches and undoing your work will haunt you so much that you're much less likely to start in on another quilt without checking the fabric quantities in more detail.
posted by cocoagirl at 9:07 AM on November 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: There are 9 columns of v-shapes (so 18 colums of rectangles). I made two columns of v-shapes (4 colums of rectangles) and sewed them together which is probably about 500 seams. I am very disinclined to unsew it. My most likely route right now is to buy enough of a background fabric to do the whole thing and just start over. The only thing making me hesitate to do that is that I would also have to cut 600 little rectangles again.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:39 PM on November 5, 2023

This is a part of crafting that just stinks. If you’re going to start fresh, consider using multiple white fabrics as in the example, it both shows off all the work you’ve done sewing little rectangles together and helps hide minor imperfections / slightly uneven puckering after you quilt and wash it / eventual stains. You can also use the cut-but-not-sewn rectangles and not have to recut them.
posted by momus_window at 3:26 PM on November 5, 2023

I would just choose one or two new white fabrics and sprinkle them in over the next columns, transitioning at whatever pace you need to max out your density of new fabric pieces at the center, then transition back to your original white so that the outer two columns are all original white, to balance what you already have.
posted by redfoxtail at 3:33 PM on November 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

Perhaps this is obvious, but: before you commit to an approach, make a mock-up. I'd be inclined to do this digitally, but you could also make sketches on paper and color them in.
posted by demi-octopus at 9:07 AM on November 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'm nearly a month late reading this, but in case you put it aside until now, I'd do something similar to amtho's idea. Except I'd keep it to just two whites (or an off-white). and I'd intersperse them for a nice subtle gradient effect. So I'd have your current two columns as is. Then in each next column, I'd gradually increase the mix of that white and your second white, interspersed randomly. And then decrease again after you reach the center. So, calling the two fabrics w1 and w2 you'd have something like this, adjusted to the %s that your w1 allows:
Column 1 100% w1
Column 2 100% w1
Column 3 80% w1 20% w2, intermixed
Column 4 60% w1 40% w2, intermixed
Column 5 40% w1 60% w2, intermixed
Column 6 60% w1 40% w2, intermixed
Column 7 80% w1 20% w2, intermixed
Column 8 100% w1
Column 9 100% w1

I think that'd look gorgeous and intentional, just adding a touch of visual texture to the background.
posted by daisyace at 10:04 AM on November 30, 2023