What the Heck Are Those Circles For?

When purchasing your fabrics have you ever noticed the little coloured circles along the selvedge edge? They are there for a reason.

When fabric companies manufacture their fabrics they often use many different colours within each fabric design printed. These are called colour registration marks and they have a number either in the centre of the circle or just beside it. Each printing screen used for the fabric design is assigned a different number. A number 1 in the circle represents the first colour used and so on and so on until the entire design is printed. Some fabric companies are starting to use different shapes (not just circles), but it means the same thing.

The colour must be deposited exactly in the centre of the circle. That means that the design is spot on according to the way the designer planned it. Inspectors at the fabric manufacturing plants use these as visual guides. During the printing process the inspector knows to stop the machinery and recalibrate if the colour falls outside of the circle. It will affect the overall design and edges may appear blurry if the printing is off.

Some misprinted fabrics do get by the inspectors occasionally and end up being printed anyway. These are definitely not first run fabrics and are sold as seconds...priced cheaper than the great quality fabrics that are sold at your local quilt store. If you come across these at a discount store know that you are probably still buying a decent quality fabric...it's just not the best printing of it.

Fabric manufacturers also use colour registration marks to determine if all the fabrics in that line have colour consistency from one printing to another. Different dye lots are sometimes slightly off from the original run. I'm sure it's happened to a few of you...you go back to the store because you need half a metre (to our American friends, that's slightly larger than a half yard) of that great fabric for your project only to find that yes, they have the fabric you're looking for, but it's not quite right. It's probably a new dye lot.

These colour registration marks are also helpful for you. Cut it off your fabric, throw it in your purse, and take it with you to the quilt store if you need to find some coordinates. It's still better to take the actual fabric with you because you get a truer sense of whether or not they'll go well together. Don't get too caught up being matchy-matchy, just worry about if the fabric you want will go well with your main print.

So the next time you're at your local quilt shop you will have new knowledge and a new set of skills when searching for those perfect coordinates.