Someone hug that Pat Sloane if you know her!! I love to read color books, about color, etc..and, if you are as addicted to color and it's direction, OR.....if you thumb yourself in the nose and have no idea what direction to go..then you have to check out her book. "Take The Fear Out Of Color".. I don't know how long it has been around...but, a great inspiration and full of starting ideas!! (I checked mine out of our library!)
(If you read it and have started putting your own color books, etc together...then thread in here!)

She has you make your own notebook, clip and glue pictures of objects of color by pages. Things that appeal to you, etc. Personalize the book. Which I am going to do so soon!! Only I'm going to go crazy w/mine:)(Imagine that!) It's a great plan! To put different objects and colors together that appeal to you!! There is a great plan in buying fabrics!! I like her description of how she decides when a busy fabric is a certain color....I've been doing that myself and feel I earned a badge!LOL

I've seen booklets from others of snippets of fabric, etc. Even had a friend organize hers by picture of pattern, finished quilt, dates, notes of struggles and wins, etc....all of these are great ideas and contribute to growth in color!!:)Now, who has this book, has read it or one like it??And, do we want to challenge ourselves to 'journal' and make one to show and tell??!! Tag! You are It!LOL Skeathttp://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-taunt003.gif

Okay...okay...where are the posts??:)I see many readers, but, no opinions!LOL So, tell what you do to inspire your color needs...how do you come up w/crazy color combos??And, anyone read this book??Riding the rainbow...Skeat

I tried to do something like that a long while ago, but got bored with it. I still have the notebook somewhere in my room.

Sorry, Skeet, more into values than just colors!
Have tried to change , but keep slipping right back into value! LOL

Okay, okay - I'll admit to reading but not posting :twisted: :lol:

Honestly, Skeat - I've been working with color & design for a long time, and I can't tell you how I do it 'cuz ... well, I just do it. :oops: It either looks right to my eye or not - which doesn't mean I always get it right by any means (I just had to re-do one of my star blocks for my WIP because it looked great up close but 'blended' and the star got lost from a distance - a value problem.) I've just always done it this way. I do have a color wheel in case I get really stuck, but very rarely use it.

I will have to check out that book, though - it sounds very interesting!

I have taken color classes and own several books, but I agree with Ninnie - it's really all about contrast.

With colors, I do tend to separate "white" colors from "beige" colors when I make a quilt, except in really scrappy quilts, but otherwise I just play around.

Oh, and I found that making miniature and other small projects was a good wasy to experiment with different fabric combinations, because they didn't require a large investment in time or money.

I am so color/hue/value challenged that I usually stick with "anything goes" scrappy.

I think I can see "tone" in a quilt, and color (obvious if you are not color blind), but I don't get what the "value" is. I'm not implying I'm particularly good at choosing colors together, but I can see clearly what the color is. But what's value? Depth? size of the prints? I don't really get it.

I think I might be a little too basic. I just use what I think goes well together. I tend to be drawn more to natural hues for background and muted hues for colors. How boring am I? :? :lol:

Value is how light or dark your fabric is. The link below might be helpful.

http://quiltblocklibrary.com/quiltblocks-color3.html