Fabrics,  Quilts

Let’s re-color a quilt

Let’s face it, new fabric has a shelf life, and within a year, it can be challenging to find.  What can you do when you find a quilt you want to make, but the fabric isn’t available anymore?  I’ll show you!

Cottontail Cottage is the perfect spring quilt, and it’s so much fun to stitch, but by now, the fabric is almost impossible to find.  So, I went looking for a Moda fabric line with spring colors similar to Cottontail Cottage.  Here’s my original quilt:

With the help of the fabric guide inside the pattern, I selected Summer Sweet by Sherri & Chelsi, and then Sue and I set out to digitally re-color this quilt.  Here’s what we quickly ended up with!

 

Here’s a close-up of our re-colored cottage block:

 

And, here’s block one re-colored:

And of course, the center bunny blocks (my personal favorite):

When we started with the fabric guide for Cottontail Cottage (found inside the pattern and below) we replaced each fabric with one from Summer Sweet.  I’ve used a lot of fat quarters and fat eighths, so I recommend starting with a fat quarter bundle, then adding more yardage as you need it.

Here’s the new fabric guide using Summer Sweet (you’ll find a printable PDF file link below the picture):

Summer Sweet, Cottontail Cottage Fabric Guides

You’ll find the Cottontail Cottage quilt pattern on my website.  If you’d like to print a copy of our digital Cottontail Cottage/Summer Sweet quilt, here’s the link…

Summer Sweet Quilt

 

I’ll be doing more re-colorings in the future.  I hope it helps!

Hugs,

Anne

14 Comments

  • Debbie

    This is EXACTLY what I was up against when I fell in love with  the, Twas the Night Before Christmas pattern! I searched high and low and even “lower” for the identical fabric, as I wanted it to be “just like the pattern”!  I did find a few stragglers that some shops still had, at the suggestion from Anne but she did tell me that a lot of the Moda Fabrics in that style might work! They did! I have it half done and am on an RV trip to Az where I am working on the applique blocks in the truck as we travel! This blog was very reassurring in that “substitutions” can be just as good!! Thank you!

  • Marilyn D.

    Thanks for trying to help.  When you pick a pattern out and trying to find material at a quilt shop to make that pattern is also a challenge and very confusing.

  • DeAnna Dodson

    Oh, that’s so cute! Both ways. I’m always coming to the fabric party late and then spending all kinds of time trying to track down the original fabrics. Sometimes I can, thanks to eBay and etsy, but not always. “Recoloring” is a gret idea!

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