Hello again. I sure was glad to find this quilting forum today. The quilt I've started is very complicated in some ways but should be easy to put together once I've got it organized. It's a Kaffe Fassett one with bright colours, no whites or really light colours and they all run together with several repeated (21 different fabrics). The outer pieces will be dark green so it looks like a flower garden.

I have over 20 different fabrics of different colours and am having quite a time putting them together so they blend nicely. Would you say that if one colour is duplicated in the next fabric they go together? Or would it be O.K. if the colour just matches the other, isn't the same? I have everything from bright orange, fuscia, hot pink, red, blues, turquoise, greens and yellows.

Joan

I have used a color wheel and have read books about color, hues, tints, tones, warm and cool. I finally learned to go with the colors I liked next to each other. If it pleases me then it's the right choice for me. :D

Hi Calico,

Welcome from upstate NY. BellaBoo offers excellent advice about the color wheel but even better advice about doing what you like. I think, as quilters, we all have good color sense but we often obsess so much about it we fail to trust our first instincts. It is most definitely trial and error. If you think they look good together... go for it.

FF

With colors as bright as Kaffee Fassett I would not worry so much about them blending, they are going to pop unless you use them sparingly. Weren't the bright colors what attracted you to the fabrics? Let them sing next to each other in a way that you imagined when you bought it and that pleases you! :wink: 8)

Amen to go with what pleases you! Don't over worry about it, and it will be fine. Just remember, when you see gardens, they look great, and the colors work! :lol:

I have been to a couple of his lectures, and if I remember rightly (they were a long time ago) he said that if he wasn't sure of his colour scheme, he just threw in another dozen colours. In other words, the more, the merrier to his way of thinking. Go with the flow, and don't worry too much.

Thank you all. I am feeling much better and not so frustrated. I've never done anything so daring before but love the colours.

All the Kaffe Fasset quilts that I have seen sort of just seem to be a happy riot of color. I would second what everyone else is saying- if you like it, go for it.

Do you have a design wall to test your blocks? I heard an idea on this board and use it all the time- you just tack a flannel backed tablecloth on the wall with the flannel side out and you can stick your blocks to it and move them around. Works like a charm and cheap, too!

I agree, the more colors the better!

When I am in doubt about fabric/colors. I audition them. My method is that I fold the fabric into smaller pieces and lay them next to each other similarly as to how they would be in the block. Then I walk away from the layout and pop in a few times just to glance at it. UNLESS a fabric jumps out at me as a garish mismatch, I use them. The sum of the parts is usually so much more/better than the focus we put on individual pieces.

Give yourself permission to be creative. The fabric line you mentioned is designed to work together. The more, the merrier.