What is a Focus Fabric?
A Focus Fabric is usually a print with several colors that is used to help select fabrics to use in a quilt. Starting with the multi-print Focus Fabric and selecting various prints that go with that fabric allows the quilter to have a color pallet for building the group of fabrics needed for the quilt.
Benefits of a Focus Fabric
- New quilters find it very helpful to work with a Focus Fabric as they learn to pick a variety of fabrics for their quilt project.
- Many printed fabrics have color dots on the selvege that show the colors used to print the fabric which can be used confidently to select additional fabrics.
- Choose light, medium and dark fabrics that go with the Focus Fabric and a variety of print types, to provide "visual texture" in the quilt.
- The Focus Fabric can be used as a color guide and doesn't need to be in the quilt!
Supplies and Tools for Focus Fabric
The color dots are helpful for quilters selecting fabrics to add to their palette. A busy Focus Fabric may have as many as 12-15 color dots, giving the quilter a lot of options for selecting additional fabrics to go with the Focus Fabric.
What I Wish I Knew When I Started using a Focus Fabric
It is easy to use a Focus Fabric to create a palette for a quilt project. Start with a Focus Fabric and keep adding more prints and solids to the palette until you have the amount of fabric needed for the quilt project.
