Saturday, September 27, 2008

Help needed - Asian fabric

My granddaughter and her boyfriend met me at the quilt store to pick out fabrics for a quilt. I was quite surprised that the girl who wanted orange and brown gravitated towards the Asian fabrics, found one she fell for and would not put it down.

Her excitement grew the more she looked at it. She said the bed could be on the floor, there could be a low table to sit at and drink Saki (until I informed her of what it is), she could use Feng Shui when doing her room, paper lanterns, etc.

The point here is she loved the fabric. Then they saw photos of kaleidoscope quilts and loved those. Eeek. I've never used Asian inspired fabrics and have not made a kaleidoscope quilt before.

Does anyone have any advice or know of any websites that I could look at quilts using Asian fabrics or kaleidoscope quilts? I've googled but keep getting a random picture here and there and I'd like to look at lots of them.

If it comes down to it I will use it for the backing and use matching Asian themed fabrics for blocks on the opposite side. She could use either side then. I bought 10 yards of the fabric. One definite good thing is Asian fabrics were 30% off and I bought the rest of the bolt so got an extra 5%. Super price. Also purchased a couple other matching fabrics then got burnt out and left. Have a few more days to go back and get 30% off any more contrasting fabrics I might need.

All advice or suggestions welcome.

Here's the Kona fabric she chose:
Photobucket

4 comments:

Quilter Going Bananas said...

Beautiful fabric! I wonder if it's beauty would be diminished if it was cut up into wedges to make a kaleidoscope quilt. Maybe a pattern that would showcase the gorgeous fabric would be better. Take a look at J's blog, she's working on her second hexagon quilt. There are several posts to look at on the subject. Hope this helps. QGB http://jdebreuilsartandquilts.blogspot.com/2008/09/k-box.html

Linda said...

She chose some beautiful fabric! I have some asian fabric that was given to me and I haven't dared cut it yet! It sits waiting for me to be inspired and I sit shaking and quaking!
Good luck!!!
Linda

Anonymous said...

Hi Melody!

Here is a link to a quilt you could do, it's really simple (yeaaa) but would make a big statement with the fabric she choose.
http://weewonderfuls.typepad.com/wee_wonderfuls/2005/02/kimono_quilt.html

Also there is a book we have at work called Too pretty to cut , or something like that. I will find out tomorrow when I go and and email it to you. Maybe there would be something in there?

Have a great day!
melissa

Lori in South Dakota said...

it's beautiful, I would use it on the back too, much too pretty to cut up. Although I am wondering how far apart the repeat is......!! Yes, I've played with the kaleidiscope thing, and it's fun. You need a busy, contrasting, and large repeat fabric. You know, measure from where the pattern repeats to the next. Hmm--I know somewhere I have a book on it.......