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Tips & Techniques
Mock-Up Blocks
By Caroline Reardon
You've chosen the pattern for your next quilt. At the quilt shop, you pull out bolts of fabric, stack them, stand back and squint to see how the candidates work together. Finally you decide--this combination is good. Isn't it? How can you really know? Make a mock-up block. Because every color is affected by all the others in a collection, you won't know how well they work together until you see each one in proportion to all the others. You'll find this exercise invaluable!
Materials needed:
graph paper
pen or pencil
pins
scissors
glue stick
1/8 yard of each fabric to be used in quilt
On graph paper, draw a full-size block with no seam allowances. Make at least two copies. From one copy, cut out each different patch shape to make finished-size templates.
Starting with your favorite fabric, cut out patches and put them in place on another copy. Don't glue yet. Build your block with the other patches and fabrics. You may see right away that some colors look darker or lighter or brighter or grayer than you'd expected. Trade some with other candidates until you like the look. Then glue them down close to each other so that no white paper shows between patches.
Pin or prop this block up against a neutral background and stand back to get an overall impression.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Does the design within the block show up well? If not, increase the contrast by replacing a light-colored fabric with a lighter one, a bright with a brighter one or a dark with an even darker one.
- Does one portion overwhelm the design? If so, try a more subdued color in these patches, one that is grayer than the first.
- Is it boring? If so, you may have too many "mediums" or too many small prints. Add more lights or more darks or perhaps a big print or one that contains lots of colors.
- Is the overall design confusing? Try substituting a solid for a print or a medium for a bright in the background patches and save the attention-getting colors for the main design.
Peel off the fabric rejects or just glue new patches over them until you come up with the color combination that you love.
Once you've decided on which fabrics to use, don't wait long to buy, even if you're not yet ready to sew. Some fabrics sell out quickly and many are not reprinted. Once you have the fabrics, you'll know that you have the color combination to make a beautiful quilt!
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