Solid Fabric Play

I am a print girl and a curator of the finest quilting fabrics…..ok ok…..I’m a fabric hoarder lol. I absolutely love finding new, unique and versatile print fabrics to use in my quilts and designs but now and then the occasion will arise where solid fabrics are called for. In addition to being a quilter, I’m also an artist who enjoys painting and sketching so I suppose solid fabrics hold a certain appeal just because they are the purest form of color in fabric; paint just ready to be used to paint a quilty picture!

One of my contributions to Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine gave me the opportunity to jump right in to solid fabric play! The “Feeling Fruity” quilt features 100% solid fabrics in bright, summery, tropical colors.

So how do you make working with solids exciting? Admittedly, I used to find solids boring. The only solid fabric I used to have in my stash…literally...was white. White. That’s it. As I began designing quilt patterns, I quickly started seeing the beauty in solids. Here are some tips for how to incorporate solid fabrics into your quilts in a fun, exciting way:

-Change up the background. I may be the only person who has struggled with this, but as beautiful and clean as white is, it is certainly not the only background fabric option. Try branching out into a different solid color for the background of your blocks/quilts. It can be a subtle color like light aqua/blue or a more striking contrast with navy.

-Use multiple shades of the same color. This pineapple quilt would look very flat and, shall I say “blah”, if I had just used 1 green color for the leaves, 1 yellow and 1 pink. It added so much interest just by using 5 yellows, 5 pinks and 3 greens. That’s 13 colors in a “3” color quilt! It gives the leaves dimension and interest and gives the pineapples a fun ombre affect!

-Play with tone-on-tone. Try playing with a tone-on-tone affect by using various shades of the same color in the whole quilt. For example, a peach background with coral, orange, and red pieces.

-Small pieces are a solid’s best friend. When piecing blocks with small pieces, like my dog quilt block patterns, solids are very effective because there are no prints to get cut off in the seam allowances or distract from the picture.

Make sure to swing by Love Patchwork and Quilting’s website to subscribe to this fantastic magazine! It is seriously packed with amazing patterns!


I hope these tips on how to play with solids were helpful! Feel free to leave a comment down below if you have any other tips for working with solid fabrics. To see more of my work you can follow me on Instagram and you can find my other quilt patterns here.

Have a sun-shiney day!