How to Audition Fabric for a Quilt (Before You Cut)

Auditioning fabric just means trying fabrics together before you commit. It's the quilting version of holding paint chips against the wall, and it's the single best way to avoid the sinking feeling of a finished top that doesn't look the way you pictured it. Here are the methods quilters rely on, from the quickest to the most thorough.

1. Start with one fabric you love

Most successful quilts have a starting point: a focus fabric, often a larger print that sets the mood. Pull it out first, then audition everything else against it. If a fabric fights with your focus fabric, it will fight in the quilt too.

2. Check value, not just color

Value is how light or dark a fabric is, and it does more of the work in a quilt than color does. A pattern's design shows up because of contrast between lights, mediums and darks. Two fabrics in completely different colors can read as the same value, and the design disappears where they meet.

• Take a photo of your fabrics side by side and switch it to black and white. Fabrics that blend together in gray will blend together in the quilt.
• Squint, or step back across the room. Detail fades and value is what's left.
• Sort your pile into light, medium and dark, and check your pattern needs each group.

Tip: Many patterns label fabrics by value (light, medium, dark) rather than by color. Match those values and you can swap in almost any colors you like.

3. Look at print scale

A big floral can look stunning on the bolt and turn into confetti once it's cut into 2½-inch squares. Small prints and tone-on-tones read almost like solids from a distance, while large prints work best in bigger pieces. Fold each fabric to roughly the size it will be cut and look again.

4. Lay it out on a design wall

A design wall is simply a flannel sheet or batting pinned to a wall, so fabric sticks without pins. Put up a few sample blocks, or just rough pieces of each fabric in their places, then leave the room and come back. Fresh eyes catch a fabric that's too loud or too quiet almost instantly.

5. Audition at the quilt shop

Stack the bolts together on the cutting counter, stand back, and take a photo. Shop lighting can be very different from your sewing room, so look at the photo in daylight before you decide. Bringing your focus fabric or a swatch from home makes matching far easier.

6. Preview the finished quilt in your own fabric

The methods above tell you whether fabrics work together. They don't show you the finished quilt. That's the gap Quilt Preview fills: photograph the pattern you're making and each fabric you're considering, and see the whole quilt pieced from them, quilting stitches and all. Swap one fabric for another and compare the two versions side by side.

A quick auditioning checklist

1. Pick your focus fabric.
2. Check you have a clear spread of light, medium and dark values (try the black-and-white photo).
3. Fold each fabric to its cut size to check the print scale.
4. Choose a background that lets the main fabrics stand out.
5. Preview or lay out the whole quilt before cutting.