Choose three what? Cookies, candies, chocolates? No, silly. Choose three fabrics. Oh…can I still have three cookies?
The Three Yard Quilt trend has been a fun one to follow. Made popular by the 3-Yard books and patterns by Fabric Café, Donna Robertson and Fran Morgan have influenced quilters all over the world. What a dynamic duo!
When vending quilt shows, Lora and I had been asked by several quilters if we had 3-Yard patterns. No, but we had everything else from minis to kings. We thought it interesting that quilters were searching for more 3 Yard Quilt patterns. So we listened to our customers and designed four 3-Yard patterns. They sold like hotcakes. Hmmm… Donna and Fran really started something! We pushed up our sleeves and started designing a FREE 3-Yard Quilt Sew Along for 2024. We’ll make community quilts by the dozen! And we’re having fun.
Fabric, Fabric, Fabric
You have your 3YD pattern download, now what? You get to choose three 1-yard cuts of fabric. The instructions say to select a Light, Medium, and Dark fabric, but there really is more to it than just that. You’ve got contrast, size of print, shades, tints, fabric genre, and don’t forget colors, all playing a part in choosing the perfect Light, Medium, and Dark fabric requirements. And will this match Micah’s room? Selecting the fabric is an important part of your 3-Yard quilt. It can be stressful! It can cause decision fatigue and shut you down. Let us help you out.
Your 3-Yard Movie
Imagine your 3-Yard quilt like a movie. In your 3-yard movie, you have your Lead Actor, a Co-Star, and a Supporting Actor. Lead Actor demands most of the attention, then the Co-Star. The Supporting Actor doesn’t have much of a part in your movie. However, in your 3-yard movie, they all have the same amount of screenplay, aka 1-yard. The size of the print is a prominent element in the role a fabric plays.
So what would this yardage look like? Your Lead Actor Yard would be your busiest or largest print, perhaps the boldest colors too. The Co-Star Yard could have a moderate-size print and could be a couple of colors, but the color(s) would complement the Lead Actor Yard. The Supporting Actor Yard is usually a solid or, tone-on-tone, doesn’t demand attention but coordinates with the Lead Actor Yard and the Co-Star Yard nicely. Let’s look at a couple examples.
The Dark is the Lead Actor Yard with its beautiful ruby sunflowers. The Medium is the Supporting Actor Yard, a one-color ruby batik. The Co-Star Yard is the Light, a tone-on-tone print. The half-yard of ruby on top is the binding in this 3 Yard kit.
Check out the green selection below. Ahah! I bet you didn’t expect the background fabric to be your Lead Actor Yard. In the image below, the Light is the Lead Actor Yard. The Medium is our Co-Star Yard, and the Dark is our Supporting Actor Yard.
My medium green is not the same as the image above. I didn’t have that fabric when we sewed this up. Hopefully, you can imagine the medium green with a little more texture.
Color and Contrast
Regarding Colors, here are my guidelines.
- Keep the tones with tones. Tones are colors that have a little gray added to mute the colors, like Civil War fabrics. You can have Light, Medium, and Dark Tones.
- Keep the tints with tints. Tints are colors that have a little white added so they’re a little washed out like 30s fabrics. Again, you can have Light, Medium, and Dark Tints.
- Keep genres together. Civil War, 30’s prints, or different fabric designers such as Kaffe Fassett, all coordinate well within their genre.
- If you don’t like a particular fabric, you’re not going to like it in your quilt top either. I don’t know how ugly fabric follows me home, but occasionally I find some in my bucket and wonder what was I thinking. Don’t sacrifice all that piecework and other fabric resources for $12 of ugly fabric. Put that ugly fabric in a paper sack. Donate it, give it to a friend, but don’t use it if you don’t like it.
Of course, there are plenty of successful cross-overs. These are just simple guidelines. Once you’ve exercised that fabric selection muscle a bit, choosing fabrics will get easier. I promise.
Color might not be your superpower. One out of 200 women and 1 out of 12 men have some level of color blindness. The number of cones in our eyes also determines our ability to see the slight variations of color. Less cones, less ability to see color. If your superpower isn’t color, it is quite alright to video call a friend or ask for help from a quilt store sales associate. Enlist help when you need it.
Regarding Contrast, here are my guidelines.
- Light, Medium, and Dark are relative. They relate as a Light, Medium, or Dark within a set. That same Light for one set could be the Dark for another set.
- Use your phone to take a picture of your 3-yard set. A smartphone not handy? Squint through your lashes or dim the lights. When seen reduced on the phone, it is easier to see a gap in contrast between fabrics. Is your Medium too close to your Dark? You can also change your color pic to grayscale. However, remember red can read as a Medium when in color but changes to a Dark in grayscale. I rely on reds when taken in color, not in grayscale pics.
- Having good contrast strengthens the quilt design. If your fabrics are too close in value, your piecework can disappear. It is a bummer to work so hard on a quilt top only to discover a lighter shade of purple would have made the piecing stand out better.
Lora’s superpower is color. I have a few extra cones in my eyes too. However, we can’t smell everything, taste the slight differences in flavors, or hear the different instruments in a musical. (What? That’s a piano?) So we get it. We all have physical strengths and weaknesses. Quilting with a community, either a social-sew group at a quilt shop, or with your local quilting guild, enables us to band together, lending and leaning on each other to enjoy our hobby and to obtain the results that we want.
Most importantly, it is your quilt! Use the fabrics that make you happy. As my friend Linda would say, make a decision and embrace it.
On The Road Again
Our next show will be a the Sewing & Stitchery Expo in Puyallup WA, February 29 – March 3, 2024.
We’ll have a 30′ booth packed full of patterns and kits. Lora has over 70 3-yard kits cut and ready to come with us too. If you’re in the area, we’ll be in row 900. We look forward to seeing you!
Absewlutey,
Lisa Norton
