> About the fabric for quilting, what sort of things go into choosing a piece to include? Is there some battery of tests you use, or does it just depend on the quilts you've got in the works. Being more of a performer-type than a skilled artisan, i'm intrigued by people who can do artistic things with their hands.

Well, I hesitate to consider myself a "skilled artisan" --there are such things as "art quilts", but what I and a zillion other average quilters do is probably closer to being a "folk craft".

But, since you asked :-) ....

Here's what I consider when auditioning a fabric for a particular quilt:

1) Color. It's what everyone notices first. Some quilters dye their own fabric or overdye commercial fabric to get the exact color they want.

2) Print or pattern on the fabric:

Formal vs informal. A regular, regimented pattern, like a foulard, an even plaid, or a stripe, gives a more formal look to a quilt, vs a more random, scattered, or asymetrical print, which gives a softer, whimsical, or informal look.

Scale--the size of the print. It's often more visually interesting to mix large and small scale prints.

Style. Modern batik, or 1898 reproduction?

Depending on the look you want, you could have all printed fabrics, all solids, or a mixture.

3) Texture. I like to throw in a fabric with some extra texture occasionally--flannel, corduroy, etc. Quilts are such tactile things anyway, why not add some further dimension to that aspect?

4) "Commemorative" fabric. A piece of Mom's apron. A scrap from someone's baby clothes. That cool shirt you wore in 9th grade. If the color/pattern/scale work out, and if it's meaningful to the recipient, I think it's fun to try to work that in also.

There's also practical considerations like fabric quality/weight, colorfastness, lightfastness, etc. but I think I've bored everyone long enough. You can buy all kinds of books that tell you how to chose the fabric for your quilt, but if you stay at it long enough, I think you develop your own individual knack/style.