So, do you like to buy kits for quilts to “make your life easy”, or are you, like me, one of those that prefers to pick out all of her own components rather than accepting what someone else has chosen for you? I’ve only bought two kits in my life, one I decided to resell instead of making, and the other one is this fine and dandy kit using all Kaffe Fassett fabrics:
I love the fabrics, and this pattern is fun, so I’ll make this one, but it may be the only kit I ever make. I’m just an individualist, I always have been. I’ve always wanted to pick out my own fabric for the clothes Mom made me as a kid, for my own curtains, for my own bedding, for my own upholstery…it has to be my choice. For the same reason, I usually don’t buy more than a few pieces of fabric from the same designer’s collection…I’d rather mix and match colors, patterns and textures to my own tastes, not the collections a fabric company put together. I don’t have any problem with people who do create this way, in fact, I usually love their results, it just doesn’t allow me to be me.
There are, however, exceptions to every rule…the Purely Perennial quilt using almost entirely fabric from Kitty Yoshida’s City Girl line… Or the Amy Butler Charm quilt… And this yummy collection of fat quarters my Mom bought for me a few years back:
It’s the complete line of RJR’s Kyle’s Marketplace, all yummy fruits and veggies in all their bright colored goodness…I’ve had many thoughts of what to make from this..maybe Atkinson’s Slide Show? Maybe a colorwash type of quilt? Maybe an orchard themed design of my own? The options are endless…
The bottom line is, I don’t like to be fenced in. Don’t ask me to color inside the lines, even though the obsessive-compulsive perfectionist in me probably will anyway. Don’t expect me to fit in and stay in a box. I might be fine with the box 99.7% of the time, but I want that freedom to explore and do something crazy the other .3%. I understand why quilters and crafters like kits, it invloves less decision making, and less room for error. I understand why you see something you like and want your’s to look exactly like that. I’ve felt that way, but then I saw something else and thought…but that will make it even better! And, if I screw up and make a bad color selection or design choice? So, what? At least I gotta have fun making it and I did it my way…
made by a brunnette 
amen! i even have trouble with charm squares…gave the 2 sets I purchased away…don’t fence me in!
I’m the same way. I’ll look at a kit or pattern and think,”How can I change it up?” I just recently have found fabric lines that I fall in love with the whole line…city girl being one…and just recently bought several charm packs of Chez Moi Posh to make an Hourglass quilt for my bed. Naturally, I’m mixing in some other fabrics too!
I dont really think kits are for me either.I bought a charm pack, thinking I would make some kind of quilt, but really I just use them on other projects,
Exactly! I’m totally the same. I’ve never bought a kit. And I almost never use a pattern. I take them as a jumping off point, and then change them around. But I do admit it is much more time consuming this way. And I do a lot more math than most people want to do.I am working on a quilt right now that I did straight from the pattern. It felt so fast (top is almost pieced). But mine does at least look totally different with the fabric choices.And I did buy one to do with a particular line that I saw it done in. But I bought some other fabrics to add in. I don’t know if I’ll ever make it, but I’ve already used the line of fabrics for something else.I do buy a lot from one line if I love it…but I like to mix it up too.