Fabric, Fabric, Fabric!

I'm into lesson 120 of Quilter's Academy which has a section on fabric. Now I've read Harriet's book From Fiber to Fabric. Although the book was written several years ago and some of the specifics are out of date, it's still an incredible resource. The detailed description of the process and her explanation of just what effects your fabric's color and stability is eye opening. As a person interested in fabric dyeing, I found the section on what makes fabric lose color absolutely fascinating.

There was only a taste of information on fabric in the lessons here in class 120 and there are promises of more in future books to come, but if you are seriously interested in learning more, pick up From Fiber to Fabric.

One thing the lesson did for me, as someone with a lot of fabric, was to get me to drag out my various fabric tubs and really take a look at what fabric I currently own. Although I haven't bought much in the last couple of years, you can easily see in my stash how tastes have changed. Here are some of the very first fabrics I bought when I started quilting. I still have a few yards of stuff like this. I wonder how long I'd have to hang on to it for it to come back into style? :)

In lesson two the authors talk about whether to pre-wash or not pre-wash your fabric. When I very first started quilting I was told you had to pre-wash. I did so for my first quilt but soon after I decided I'd move over to the wait and see camp, so most of my stash is not washed. I was thrilled to hear Harriet's arguments on why pre-washing won't guarantee colorfastness in your fabric, since I probably mostly don't pre-wash out of laziness, I now have an excuse!


Although it wasn't strictly in the lesson plan, this lesson gave me an opportunity to evaluate my fabric stash on a number of levels. When looking through my hand dyes I noticed a definite lack of some colors and an abundance of others...blue or pink anyone? I also need more variety of lights and darks. I plan to do some dyeing this week and I want to try to work in some of the missing colors.

The exercise in this lesson was realigning the grain on a piece of fabric. I don't have any spray starch and I can't go get any at the moment so this exercise is being shelved for a bit until I can get some and since the next lesson involves working with a ruler and getting ready to cut I won't be able to move on for a bit.