Finding Your Style in the Fabrics You Love
One of the fun things about quilting is that there is no single “right” way to choose fabric. Some quilters love the lively, unpredictable look of a scrappy quilt, while others prefer the clean, intentional feel of coordinated fabrics. Most of us find ourselves somewhere in the middle.
Buying Fabric
For many quilters, the choice between scrappy and coordinated starts with how we buy fabric. If you’re newer to quilting or someone who buys fabric specifically for each project, you may not have a large bin of scraps to pull from. In those cases, coordinated fabrics often make the most sense. You select a color palette, choose fabrics that work well together, and create a cohesive design from the beginning.
But something interesting happens the longer you quilt.
Over time, those leftover pieces start to add up. A strip from this quilt, a few squares from that project, an extra fat quarter you didn’t quite use. Before long, you realise you have a growing collection of scraps just waiting for their turn in a quilt. And that’s when scrappy quilting becomes not only possible—but incredibly fun.
The Challenge of Scrappy Quilts
Scrappy quilts can look effortless, but they actually require a different set of skills. When you’re working with many fabrics, you can’t rely on a coordinated collection to keep everything balanced. Instead, you begin to train your eye to look at things like:
- Value (light vs. dark)
- Contrast between fabrics
- Color balance across the quilt
- Grayscale value
Looking at fabrics in grayscale is one of the most helpful tricks for scrappy quilting. When you remove the color and focus only on value, you can better see how fabrics will stand out—or blend together—in a block. This helps ensure your design still has definition, even with many different prints.
In other words, scrappy quilts may look random, but the best ones are actually thoughtfully balanced.
The Beauty of Coordinated Fabrics
On the other side, coordinated fabrics offer a different kind of simplicity. Fabric collections are designed to work together, making it easier to create a quilt that feels harmonious and polished.
This approach can also make pattern elements stand out more clearly because the fabrics share similar tones and styles. If your goal is a crisp, graphic quilt or a specific color palette, coordinated fabrics can make the process much more predictable.
Can You Make a “Scrappy” Quilt with Coordinated Fabrics?
Absolutely—and many quilters do!
This approach is often called controlled scrappy. Instead of using true leftovers, you choose a range of fabrics that all work together but vary enough to create the lively, scrappy look.
For example, you might select:
- Multiple blues from light to dark
- Several small-scale prints
- A mix of solids and tone-on-tone fabrics
The quilt will still have that patchwork, scrappy feel, but the overall palette remains controlled and cohesive.
Finding Your Balance
The truth is, most quilters move between both styles depending on the project. Some quilts call for carefully coordinated fabrics, while others are the perfect opportunity to dig into the scrap bin and see what happens.
And sometimes the most interesting quilts happen right in the middle—where coordinated fabrics meet scrappy creativity.
So now we’re curious…
Are you a scrappy quilter or a coordinated fabric planner?
Or maybe a little bit of both
Looking for Something to Do?
If you are a prolific quilter or one who only works on one project at a time, and you don’t have a project to work on, check out these pages: 2026 Block of the Month or Scrappy Quilt Patterns.
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Until next time.
