Kokomo (Stars Upon Stars) Fabric Selection

Thank you for all the lovely comments on my Kokomo quilt.  As promised I'm going to explain more about how I made it - both for anyone thinking about making one themselves, and for my personal record, because after all, that's what blogs are for.

A. Fabric selection

I loved Tula Pink's Zuma range as soon as I saw it and I knew I wanted to use it for something special so I decided to use it for my version of Stars Upon Stars - Kokomo.  As soon as the block started coming together I knew I had made the right decision for me.

Most people who make Stars Upon Stars quilts use traditional colourways.  The pattern is inspired by an antique quilt from the collection at the Grand Rapids Public Museum in USA so it's not surprising many people recreate that look with traditional fabrics.

But traditional colours have never appealed to me, and I could picture Stars Upon Stars in modern colours.  So I decided to go with blues and greens with accents of pink, orange and yellow.  

When I work on long term quilts like this I select a range of fabrics that match my vision for the quilt and move them into a different storage container. Then I just pull from that curated range as I select the fabrics for each block.  I find that this method stops me straying too far from my original vision. 

When I'm working from a limited range of fabrics I become very aware of the subtle colour differences between the fabrics.  My greens merged into teals and then into blues.  But that's fine because I love them all.  

If I needed more of a particular colour I would take some of my fabrics to the shop with me to ensure I didn't drift too far away from my colour scheme. 

In the end it's all worked out well and there's not a single block that I would change.