Now that our 52-week photo project is over, I've taken a little time to think about what I might do differently if there is a next time. I love having all the weekly pictures to look back on and am so excited to make them into a book! I've also thought about creating a poster with the pictures, too. I'll be sure to put up photos of that if I do it! Overall, I am super happy and proud of the way the project went. The main things that I would do differently all involve the fabric choices. So here are my thoughts about that:

1. Choose fabrics I LOVE. Most of the fabric I used for these pictures came from the Clearance section of the fabric stores. While that is great for our wallet, I'm not so thrilled with some of the selections. Some of the fabrics are too similar to one another; some are just odd. I liked them all at the time I bought them, but I didn't LOVE them all. Most of the clearance fabrics were $3-4/yard. It wasn't until a couple of months ago that I did the math and realized that I could pretty much have any fabric I wanted at Hobby Lobby if I used the 40% off coupon or got it when their calico prints were 40% off (which they are frequently). So even a fabric that is usually $8 or $9, I could get for just about the clearance fabric price. Now, fabrics at Joanns are a bit more expensive, as are more "name brand" fabrics like Amy Butler or Moda. But I think it might be worth it in the end to pay a dollar or two more each week to wind up with great fabrics. Another reason to choose only fabrics that I LOVE is because in addition to creating a quilt for Gia, part of the point of this project was to build up my formerly non-existent stash of fabric scraps so that when a project arose that needed fabric, I would have something on hand. Unfortunately, because I am not so crazy in love with most of the fabrics, I have found myself going out and buying MORE fabric for specific projects. So that's a bummer I didn't think about ahead of time.



2. Only buy cotton if planning to make a quilt. I was very indiscriminate about my fabric choices in the beginning. And being the novice (er, non-existent) quilter, I didn't even think about it all needing to be the same fabric. So while I love one of the seersucker prints I used in week 8, it can't go in the quilt. Neither can the weird gauzy heart fabric from week 23 (which happens to be one of my FAVES). So, next time I will definitely choose only cotton fabrics.


3. Choose a theme or broad color palette. I still think my quilt will look good, but next time I think I'd like to try choosing a theme for my fabric choices (like dots and stripes or flowers) or a broad color scheme (like teal and red, or all blues). I saw a quilt on Pinterest that was an "I Spy" quilt... all the fabrics had fun things on them, and you could use it to play "I Spy" with a toddler.


4. Always buy 1 yard of fabric. For the early pictures, I only bought 1/2 yard. Though that was all I needed at the time, it doesn't make for much leftovers to play with! That's all I can think of right now. We are right in the middle of moving across town, so I know it will be a while before I get to working on Gia's quilt. I still have to decide on a pattern too! I've pinned several ideas (some posted above here), which you can see on my Pinterest Board here. SHEY'S QUILT BOARD  So, anyone else planning on doing this project? Something similar? What do you think about the quilt patterns? Any faves?