Modern Solids - coming up with the colors!

You guys, I finally got my fabrics IN MY HANDS! For those of you wondering, they will be in shops in December and shops can currently buy them from In the Beginning. These solids are crossweaves, so they have a lovely texture and depth to them. IMG_1871

They are so pretty that I'm downright thrilled. These are all of the colors, plus the two grays on the bottom.  I thought that I'd post a little about my process of coming up with the colors.

When I first spoke with In the Beginning about me releasing another line of colors with their Modern Solids, they told me about the process. The terrifying part of it is that since it's a crossweave  fabric (that's not printed on) there's no test runs! You have to get the mill the colors of the two threads, they weave them and that's that! There's your fabric. No changes or tweaks allowed! Needless to say, when I opened up that box of fabrics, I was SO happy that I like them all.

So first up, I needed to decide on 20 colors... I spent a lot of time pulling fabrics and hitting up home depot for some paint chips!

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Since the fabrics are cross weaves - the goal was to pick the two different colors of the threads that would add up to the desired finished color of the fabric.

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First I settled on the finished colors that I wanted and then I slowly put together the two colors that would lead to it.

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I put them all together and popped the little packet of colors in the mail!

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You'll noticed a decided lack of purple. Yeah. I'm not so big on purple. I was understandably asked to add a couple so that was done and then the mill mailed us the threads.

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They sent two shades of each color, so the vibrant ones were selected and off they went to weave 'em!! I held my breath for a couple of months while waiting and now that I have actually seen them and felt them, they are beeeeeautiful!!

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Seriously. I'm not just saying this because I work with In the Beginning now... these fabrics are wonderful to work with. The drape and hand... the nice crisp flat press... and they cut so smoothly. They are just really lovely fabrics...

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I definitely picked my favorite colors, but I also did my best to pick colors that I think will really appeal to the modern quilter. I hope you like them too!