Mixing and matching

I was looking at the really amazing variety of fabrics in my autumn leaf quilt the other day. I've always been fairly fearless about mixing fabrics, and if anything I've gotten more so as I have gone along. Other than sticking with 100% cotton, I don't really have any rules. I'll mix $2 a yard calico from JoAnn's or Hobby Lobby with $10 a yard batik, reproduction with ultramodern, whatever. As long as it seems to work for the quilt, it's fine. (About the only exception to this is if I'm making something for an exchange. That's different. I try to follow the rules there, and I usually keep the $2 a yard stuff out of there, too.*)

So here's some of the things I saw in my quilt:
-- state flower fabric
-- 30s fabric (a good bit of it "borrowed" from my aunt)
-- Christmas fabric
-- at least one Halloween fabric
-- gold-embellished leaf prints and paisleys
-- a Loni Rossi typographical print
-- Moda Marble Swirls, in several colors
-- my beloved dragonflies, at least in one leaf and one background print
-- batiks, lots of them
-- Provencal prints

Sometimes I wonder if I got carried away, but it's certainly more interesting than it would be if it was nothing but tone-on-tones!




* I have to admit that I'm mostly exaggerating about the $2 a yard fabric. I won't say I've never used it and I won't say I never would either, but I'm a little bit picky about fabric quality - so I'll use it if it seems like the quality is good enough, but in actual fact I rarely do. Most of the fabric I buy at the chain stores tends to come from the $5-6 a yard section.