Choosing Colors & Fabrics for the Aldebaran Quilt Pattern
Aldebaran is a bold, big block quilt, and it’s a great opportunity to use bold colors and big prints for a fun effect. Let’s talk about the best way to pick out your colors and fabrics for this modern quilt pattern!
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Aldebaran is a bright and colorful star at the bottom of the Winter Hexagon asterism (a collection of stars), so the quilt pattern that shares its name is a great opportunity to play with some bold choices.
Aldebaran uses 4 colors to make the blocks, and all of the colors show up in the strip-pieced triangle at the bottom of each hexagon block. It can be pieced with yardage or with fat quarters, and each triangle is pretty big, so it could be an opportunity to play with some bigger, bolder prints.
Choosing Colors
Four color quilts are a rich opportunity for color play. You could choose a four shade color wash, two neutrals and two colors, two warm colors and two cool ones, two pairs of contrasting colors… there’s a lot of options! You could also easily go with a “vibe” with four colors (like the Aldebaran above– I started with the accent blue fabric that my mom brought back from Hawaii, and went for “beachy sea glass vibes”).
Always keep in mind the three types of contrast:
Value: how light or dark the fabric is or how saturated the color is
Color: the actual color of the fabric
Scale: how big or small the print is
I recommend always having at least two types of contrast in your quilt to avoid it feeling “flat” or “muddy.”
For more guidance on choosing colors, be sure to check out my blog for choosing fabrics for a 4 color quilt here.
Working with Yardage
I recommend making Aldebaran with yardage if:
You want the cutting to be as fast as possible
You’re pushing your comfort zone with colors and prints but don’t want to risk things getting “chaotic”
You just prefer it
In the Aldebaran pattern, all of the colors touch each other, but they alternate in pairs on the diagonal. If you’re wanting to be bold with prints, you might consider picking two larger prints and two smaller ones to make sure there will be plenty of contrast and your large prints can shine.
Working with Fat Quarters
I recommend making Aldebaran with fat quarters if:
You have a fun fat quarter bundle (or a bunch of fat quarters) that will look good cut into larger pieces
You enjoy a scrappier look
You just prefer it
With fat quarters, you technically could have more than four colors, but I recommend sorting them into four groups so you can create the same “alternating” effect on the diagonal with the block placement. Fat quarters will give you a scrappier appearance, give you some interesting options with block placement, and give you more fabrics to choose from as you arrange the strips for the string pieced triangle.
Closing Thoughts
Aldebaran is an opportunity to be bold with your color and print choices. Consider working with colors or prints that are outside of your usual comfort zone to see what magic may happen!
