I have the pattern and the color palette decided. Now I have to do some fabric shopping! I do have a nice stash of fabrics in my sewing room (aka my happy place), and I recently bought a bunch of red and blue fabrics knowing that I wanted to do a red, white and blue quilt in the near future. I pulled out all of my fabrics in the three colors and set them up to compare colors, patterns, and check their sizes.
The pattern lists the amount of each color needed and the size for each piece that is cut. Knowing that many of the pieces are very small, I immediately eliminated those with more distinct patterns in them, as the pattern would be lost in the cutting, or would change the color of the piece depending on how the cuts were made. For the white material, I really only had two good choices, based on the amount needed. The first white fabric had silver speckles on a white background, one of my favorite whites, but I didn’t like it for this particular project. The second fabric is a white on white fabric that is going to be perfect for this quilt. For the reds, I have chosen four marble or tonal fabrics in a few shades of red, but they are all a deeper red. The places that I am using the blue fabric calls for two shades, one darker and one lighter, but still fairly close to each other. So I chose two darker blues and two lighter blues, both also in a tonal motif.
I have my fabrics picked out! Now to get started on the ridiculous amount of cutting that needs to be done before I can start sewing!