The Chocolatier Block of the Month Club starts January 1, 2017 right here. Are you joining us? Thinking about it? One of the best parts about starting a new project is picking out your new fabric palette. Today I'm sharing with you how I selected fabric for the 3 delicious color ways you have seen floating around the internet AND... I'll give you a peek at the new version I'll be making in 2017 along with you.

-->Sign up for the BOM here. It's a one time ($25/$28 fee) for a year of colorful fun.<--

First, here is what the original Chocolatier Sampler quilt looks like. This is the quilt that is featured in the patterns. That means that all the diagrams and instructions are based on this color way.

Modern Milk Color Way (Cotton Supreme Solids on an Aqua Polka Dot Background)

Modern Milk mixes solids with a polka dot background. Unless you are looking closely, the background of this quilt reads white. It is actually a precious small aqua polka dot on a snow color fabric. Of course, you do not need to use solids on this quilt. Fabrics that would work well are small prints - fabrics that are either tone-on-tone, tone-on-white or those that read as one color will work best.

CHOCOLATIER FABRIC SELECTION GUIDE
If you want to mimic the fabric selection used in this quilt, here are the design concepts I used to color all 3 versions of the quilt.

Chocolatier is based on using 8 colors/fabrics.

Choose a Light and Dark Major Color. The Major Color appears in 4 of the 8 petals of the LeMoyne Star. You will need a Light shade and Dark shade of the Major Color. In the example, Chocolate Brown is the Major Color - called out as Chocolate (Dark) and Caramel (Light).

Choose 2 Light and Dark Minor Colors. The Minor Colors appear in 2 petals of the LeMoyne Star. Again, you will need a Light shade and Dark shade of both the Minor Colors. In the example, Aqua and Pink are chosen as the Minor Colors - called out as Deep Pink and Light Pink - (and) - Dark Aqua and Light Aqua.

Choose a Background. White/Aqua Polka Dot in this case.

Choose an Accent color for block work. (Gold above)

If you look at both the Dipped Strawberry and Cherry Cordial color ways of the quilt, you can see this same color theory in action. I love having all 3 of these color ways to show you because each one demonstrates this coloring method in 3 distinct styles of fabric (solids, traditional prints, batiks). You can use any style of fabric you like!

Dipped Strawberry Color Way (Jinny Beyer Palette)

When you purchase a subscription to Chocolatier, an Introduction document is emailed to you to help you get started. It contains all the details on the BOM, along with fabric requirements (detailed with fabric skus and yardage for all 3 color ways, AND a diagram for you print out of this quilt so you can play with your own color arrangement. For those who are curious about the needed fabric quantities, I'm listing them below.

Cherry Cordial Color Way - Malam Batiks

CHOCOLATIER FABRIC REQUIREMENTS - MODERN MILK 72" x 72" (6" finished Blocks)

4 yards White/Aqua Polka Dot background

1 1/8 yard of each of Chocolate and Caramel solids

1 yard of each Deep Pink, Dark Aqua, Yellow solids

2/3 yard of each Light Pink and Light Aqua solids

4 1/2 yards Backing
5/8 yard Binding

*Yardages vary slightly for other color ways. Everything is detailed in the Intro document with purchase.*

Now of course, in making this quilt for the second time around (I made Modern Milk and a lovely team of sample sewists made the other two), I naturally wanted to change things up a bit.

Crazy as it may be, a LeMoyne Star begs to be made in a rainbow. So for my 2017 Chocolatier, I'll be thinking of Skittles perhaps, in a wonderful fruity ROYGBIV color scheme.

For this version, I've collected 16 - 1/2 yard cuts of RJR's Cotton Supreme Solids.

If you like this palette, I am using:
RJR Cotton Supreme Solids
#217 Hot Pink
#181 Rhododendron
#209 Cantaloupe
#159 Mandarin
#337 Citron
#326 Sunny Delight
#249 Sprout
#347 Grass is a always Greener
#274 Riviera
#354 Horizon
#330 Tickled Pink
#333 Bougainvillea
#356 Moulin Rouge
#110 Red Wagon
#313 Carolina
#251 Anemone

I'll be using a Cotton Supreme Solid white as my accent color. I'm not quite sure exactly what shade it is since I pulled it from my stash. And for my background, I'll be using a super cool stormy grey with speckled flecks of silver from Flaurie & Finch's collection for RJR, Shiny Objects, called Flurries in Winter Storm (2792-02).

I can't wait to see what fabrics you are using!

Let me know if you have any questions or if I left any details out. Sorry for the wordy post, I hope this helps you in thinking about your selections.

A Special thank you to RJR for providing fabrics for this Chocolatier Block of the Month Club. I can't wait to get sewing!