I have been watching this board for a while now and have come to the conslusion that alot of what makes a quilt pretty, beautiful, or gorgeous are your color combinations. Seems like most of you can take the simplest pattern and make it stand out by your color combinations. Mine on the other hand are .........yawnable, if there is such a word. I've got the light, medium, and dark down, but how do you decide which colors will "pop"? Please let me in on the secret. Apparently color coordinating wasn't one of the genes I picked up.

I so know what you are talking about. Whenever I go shopping for fabric, I take my daughter along to help me choose the colours. Just can't seem to get it together like some of the beautiful combinations I see on here.

I am so much like you on this. I always try to take some other person with me when I am purchasing colors. My son - who hates to shop and knows if he points to a bad one that I buy he'll have to go back with me is best. But friends or anyone will do. If I need three colors, I can find two and never the third, etc. etc.

I recently made a quilt for a friend fighting cancer and took 2 friends with to pick out the fabric. I needed three each of two different colors. In less than 5 minutes the two friends had picked out all 6 and they all played nice together in the quilt. It would have taken me two hours and I would have ended up with at least 2 clunkers.

Our quilt shop has at least one class in color so you definitely are not alone.

Plus an advantage to using a local quilt shop has been their assistance in helping choose colors...

Distance really does make a difference in your fabric selections. I line them up in a cart, then walk over an aisle away. When I take that farther look, the ones that do not belong, will pop out at you. They also make a de-magnifying glass that will provide that distance if there is not enough room for a spacial viewing.

Since I now have a portable design wall, I can audition my stash fabrics from across the room. The "stinkers" for this project just might be the "rose" for the next one.

Practice, practice, practice, and your color choices will improve. I couldn't match fabrics at all when I started quilting. Some people are born with the gift, but others (like me) have to work at it. Color from the Heart, by Gai Perry, is an excellent book to help with color.

http://www.amazon.com/Color-Heart-Se...2106394&sr=8-1

Choose a print you like. Then look at the selvedge to see if it has those little color dots. This will show you all the colors used in the print and they're designed to look good together. Also, some paint stores have color cards with coordinating colors schemes. Use these as a reference.

That is why I copy pic of color combinations that strike me and put in a folder on my computer. I can always go back and search for inspiration.:) Many of my saved photos are from this board.

It's not just colors that make the quilt. The scale of the designs also make a difference. Too many of a large print and they compete with each other (unless you use plain sashing). Too many of a small scale or solid can be boring. You need to mix them up. Use some of each color and scale for variety. To get ideas on colors, look at the designer collections. You can get ideas of what looks good together.