Fabric Identification

I wanted to touch on something that often crops up in the shop. You are in the middle of a project and you run out of fabric.........no problem, right? You have the selvage with the identifying information, so you just run to the quilt shop or give them a call. That number on the selvage is the all inclusive number for that specific fabric line, but it doesn't give any information regarding that particular color. Now sometimes that might be all you need, for example if there is only one orange fabric in that line that would be all you need.

But other times there may be many shades that are similar within a line (for instance, there are many light background options in the grunge line and they are very hard to distinguish in a picture or small sample of fabric). You can see how hard it would be to judge a specific background out of these choices.

Take a look at these three bolts all belonging to the Canvas line. The selvage number (9030) is identical on all three.

To know the specific color you can only find that on the end of the bolt when you purchase it at the store. The color number is the number after the dash following the fabric line number. The orange fabric at the bottom of the picture is from the Canvas line # 9030 and is color 55.

Now if we look at more of the bolt information we can see the name of the line and the actual name of the fabric color/pattern.

We see here that it is manufactured by Northcott, the line is called "Canvas" and the actual name of the color of this orange bolt is "Marmalade".

Let's think of a couple of things we can do to prevent being in a bind when we run out of fabric before we finish a project:

1) One simple solution is to take a picture of the end of the bolt on our cell phone when we purchase it. However, if you are like me, you have so many projects you want to do that it could be a couple years before you start this particular one. And I don't want to search through two years worth of photos to find my pictures.

2) Chances are you have your pattern with you when you are picking out your fabric as you need to know your fabric requirements. Take a few seconds and write on your pattern the information you would need to identify the fabric in the future. If you don't like writing on your patterns, then make a copy of the requirement page to write on and then attach it to your pattern so you have it in the future.

3) Now if you want to take organization to whole new level (and one that is definitely too organized for me, lol) you could print off some of the free downloadable project planner sheets and start a binder.

Or you could dedicate a notebook to your projects. This would have a few benefits in addition to the fabric identification. I know I often have ideas for specific fabric bundles I have purchased but after they sit on my shelf for a few months, I can't even remember what I had planned, so this option would be a great reminder.

All of these options mean you have to be a little organized, but I'm thinking a little organization might save you a lot of frustration down the road, and quilting is supposed to be fun!!!!

Remember, a good day is a day spent quilting!

Twila