Put it on Paper

I often struggle when designing my blocks with having to cut the fabric before I'm sure that I will LOVE how the fabrics will go together to finish the block.  Reading saves the day!  While reading one of my quilting mags, a reader had a tip to make a color copy of the fabric on paper and cut out your pieces from the paper sheets and lay together in your design - It works wonders!  It was in the June 2016 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting, "Tips from Readers" section.

I chose the fabrics that I thought would be the finalists in the block - the teal color is a favorite fabric that I have been saving for something special and want to have it be the center piece of a project - I just haven't been able to be positive that I will LOVE it once I put the feature fabrics together for real.  I just laid the fabrics on the glass of the copy machine and pressed green for go!  It doesn't matter if there is some white around the edges - you can trim that off when you cut your pieces.

Color photo copies aren't always exactly true to color but they are awfully close.  Use your paper scissors for cutting the pieces - paper will dull your rotary and your scissors alike!

I drew the pieces on with a fine tip Sharpie and then just cut them with scissors instead of trying to rotary cut them..  I made multiple copies of each fabric in case I wanted to  change up the pieces or rearrange them  in a different setting.

Cutting the paper pieces and taking a picture of it let me see that these colors aren't quite what I was looking for - the darks are too dark and the light is really a medium!   A secondary trick is to lay the pieces on different background colors and rearrange them to find the one you love.  It works great and I didnt have to cut my beautiful fabric before I was really ready to build the quilt!

Have fun with it - Im pretty sure this could work for scrap booking and other textile arts as well!