Gypsy Wife Quilt-along 2016

Well, it turns out that you probably shouldn't ponder some things in public. What happened when I pondered making another Gypsy Wife aloud on a previous blog post? Um, I'm not too sure exactly... but fast forward a few days and now it appears that I have agreed to co-host a Gypsy Wife quilt-along with my exuberant friend Hydeeann :-)

Actually, I'm really pleased that Hydeeann coaxed me into committing to Gypsy Wife #2. When I look at the photo of version 1, I still love its scrappiness and I want to see it made in colours/fabrics I also love.

Hydeeann has posted an initial outline of our epic #GypsyWifeQuiltAlong2016 adventure and there will be more details to follow. In this post I'm going to show you my fabric selection for version 2 and say a little about what I have chosen and why.

I started with a trip to my not-so-local quilt store All Things Patchwork, and bought a small selection of 20cm WOF cuts. I looked for a few fabrics that I really liked that could lead the way. Why WOF cuts? See all those long strips in the photo above? That's why. You can use FQs but I look for any short cuts I can find :-)

You can see that I also chose a few greys. I think this pattern works well with a nice supporting cast of low volume fabrics. When I got home, I raided my stash.

In making this pile of fabric I was aiming to include some specifics. I've rearranged the fabric so you can see what I am talking about.

Starting with the lower right - my large scale, multi-coloured fabrics, some of which provided the original colour direction. I'm hoping these will give the quilt its "gypsy" flavour. Directly above them are some smaller scale fabrics. A lot of the pieces in this quilt are very small, so a good number of small scale fabrics are useful. Bottom left I have included some fabrics that read quite close to solids. I may include some actual solids. I like the look of the few solids sprinkled in among the prints in version one so we'll just see how it goes. Top left are a few extra greys including a nice dark one.

Finally I have started gathering a small pile of 'maybe' fabric which I will use for little pops of punch if needed. I don't want my quilt to get too samey samey if you know what I mean (its a technical term). I won't know about these until progress is underway. They are pretty small scraps, but because I will only use them in moderation, they are perfect for the job.

Overall, I think the trick to this quilt (if you like the look of the original) is to make sure you have a nice balance of light and dark fabrics. Having said that, there are some other quite different takes on this pattern which also work really well. I'm looking forward to starting this adventure again with Hydeeann and cheering on our team mates!