Color Matching Tips

I saw a request in our guild's newsletter for selvedges.  (Is that how you spell it!??)  I cannot recall who was asking - but I've been saving these up for her.

People sew some pretty neat-o things with these.  They are tough like a light denim.  Aren't all those colored dots so pretty?  They contain the dye colors that are used on that particular fabric.  They also show if the printed colors are off pattern or not, depending on how the colors fit into the circles.  See?

I realized that those might actually come in hand when choosing coordinates.  I'm not sure why I hadn't realized that before!  (Don't worry - I'll still pass the selvedges on to that member who requested them : )  I think I will actually take this selvedge strip to the fabric store to match fabrics.  I LOVE this birdie fabric, but I've had so much trouble getting a good match.

LOOK at all those color options!  I had no idea with this one until I looked.  Grey and charcoal... I hadn't noticed that.  I was always trying green, red, and brown.  And the cream - I hadn't seen that before.  

I do that a lot.  I buy fabric that 'speaks to me' - but only one piece.  Then when i get home, it doesn't match with even one of my hundreds of other pieces of fabric!  So I did an experiment.  I pulled out a cute retro-owl fabric that I've had for over a year but have been unable to use it.  I tore off the selvedge and held it up to compare it against my stash.  IT WORKED!  This plaid fabric from a different line of coordinates just matched all those little colored bubbles.  : )  And out came the iron, the cutting mat & rotary blade, the ruler, the sewing machine.  Excuse the crappy lamp lighting!  Here's some pieced owls:

And here's some of the plaids:

And there are the threads to chose from when it comes time for quilting:

Of course, as you know from the last post, I have a LOT of white fabric.  I'm nearly done the top.  It's looking so darn cute!  I'll finish it tonight and post it.  First I need to clean the house, clean the yard, do the dishes, feed the pets, make supper and run my kids to a birthday party.  OMG It's 4 pm now.  Gotta fly!

~Monika

who laughed out loud all afternoon while listening to CBC radio in the background.  I LOVE CBC Radio!!