Marcy J.

I have searched for the answer to this for a long time. The design of the quilt is made by the placement of the colors. How do I figure which color to place where. Ex. four or nine patch. If you want the dark or predominate color to flow and make a diagonal design, how does one decide which color goes where and how much fabric to buy Hope I am making myself clear.

clem55

Marcy, I try coloring it out on graph paper. That works for me. Don't knnow if there is a correct method or not, this has always been my eay. I print out graph paper free , but right now I can't think of the website.

katier825

In a 9 patch, if you place the darker colors in the center and outer 4 corners, it will give you more of a design. Is that what you mean? If you were to alternate the 9 patch with a solid block, you'd get a diagonal grid pattern, similar to a single Irish chain.

Sometimes I will color a design on graph paper or do one up on the computer to get a feel for how it will look.

Rhonda

When you have an odd number of blocks you want the darker fabric in the most blocks. As in a nine patch you have 5 outer blocks(4 corners and the center block) and 4 in the middle. So your Dark color should be in the 5 and your lighter color in the 4 blocks.

But you can reverse them and get another differant look. It is all in how you want it to look and the best way to decide that is to play with the colors and blocks.

You can use graph paper and colored pencils to see the effect your placement will have.
Or you can use a comp program such as EQ or

You can use colored paper and cut out your blocks as if they were fabric and move them around to see the effect you get if you use a particular color in a particular arrangement.

Start with the 5 dark and 4 light and then turn them and move them to see what other options you have. Or play with 3 colors - 4 corner blocks dark 4 middle blocks light and the center one medium color.

Experimenting with color and placement is fun. Try it and see what you can come up with.

MTS

Actually, it has nothing to do with color and EVERYTHING to do with value. ;-) ;-) ;-)

I can make a quilt with my favorite colors, and if I'm not careful about value placement it will look like caca. Conversely, I can made a fabulous, striking quilt with colors I'm not crazy about, but it will be much more interesting and successful (visually) than the first one.