Playing with fabric is addictive. Playing with fabric for one of my favorite patterns is a blast! I thought I’d see what Bouquet would look like in some different fabric combinations.
I’ve made Bouquet several times. It’s a good pattern for making in what I like to call “Controlled Scrappy” – or it can be made up in just 4 fabrics for a dramatic effect. It makes up very quickly, even the twin size can be made in a weekend.
The picture below is the first version I made. It’s the crib quilt size – without a border and I used batiks from Majestic Batiks. I love the rich saturated colors and the interesting background – it includes subtle vines and flowers.
So how do I go about playing with fabric – without making up the entire quilt? I’m a HUGE fan of EQ8 Quilt Design Software. With this program – I can draw my quilt – and pull in fabric images from most fabric manufacturers. Many of them are already “pre-loaded” in the program. If they aren’t – I can upload the images provided by the fabric manufacturer. I can “place” those fabric images where I want them to go in the quilt – and change them up over and over again. Once I have the version I want – I’ll make that one up.
Here are just a few examples that are pretty different from my original quilt. In each case, I chose to make the background fabric and the border from the same fabric. I like the floating effect it gives to the center blocks.
What color combinations would you choose? I’ve found that the best color combinations are fabrics that have a bit of contrast from the background. That’s what makes the flowers seem to “float” above the background fabric.