Do samplers need a color scheme?
 

I've been perusing Pinterest for sampler quilts. Most have a color scheme. The few that I found that were just arbitrary and random when it came to colors appealed to me, but I don't know if they'd have general appeal at all. I would like to do a sampler where each block is whatever color scheme appeals to me at the time so I don't get sick of doing them. Maybe I need to do 10 sampler quilts! I know I shouldn't care what anyone thinks, but I would like people to look at the quilt and not think, what an ugly quilt that is.

What do you think? Can I get away with a non-existent color scheme in a sampler quilt? Or should I at least attempt to follow one? If you have sampler quilts without defined color schemes that you like, feel free to post them for me.

Thanks.

Mine tend to always have a theme even if it is not color it might be by style like 1930, pastels, civil War, patriotic, Hawaiian, floral, etc. You can also tie a quilt with no color scheme together by adding a more neautral sashing. Even the ones that had no color scheme seemed to atleast be all brights, pastels, or jewel tones etc. I think if it appeals to you go for it.

I think personally I would prefer some colour connection between the blocks even if each block had a main set of colours and a different contrast colour in each block.

Like everything else in quilting, the answer is "that depends". If the quilt is just to make you happy or for charity or utilitarian, then anything goes.

If you're planning on making it for a customer, entering it in a show, or are just particular about how you like your quilts, then you probably either want to built unity in there somehow. Since it's a sampler, you can't rely on the piecing to create unity. I'm not sure how you plan to quilt it, but that could potentially help add unity. Finally, you can add unity by the fabrics you pick. Here are different ways to do that:

1) Choose a LOT of different colors! Go with all solid fabrics (or near solids) that have roughly the same amount of saturation of color. If you pick all low-saturation fabrics (like pastels), you want to add some contrast in there with black and/or white, but your white should be off-white/ivory, and your black should be a slightly dusty, "off" black. Likewise, you could pick high-contrast fabrics (like brights or neons). In the past, those used to always be against a solid black background, but currently the trend is to add contrast by using grey, beige, yellow or tonal colors to add interest instead of focusing solely on unity.
2) You could pick a split complementary color scheme & get 4 different colors out of it, plus as many tones/tints/shades of each of those 4 colors as you'd like. I think you'd be surprised how many different fabrics you can include even with "limiting" yourself to 4 colors (& all their iterations).
3) You could pick a multi-color print for use in border or sashing or some block where you use a fair amount of it -- then look at the colors shown on the selvedge & pick coordinating fabrics that reflect any or all of those colors.
4) Find a picture of nature (flowers, mountains, underwater, anything) that you really love & pick any or all of the naturally occurring colors in the photo. If they appear together in nature, they will almost always work together in a quilt.

Yes, it's true that many times samplers I see are stitched only in 2 colors. The reason for that is typically for one of two reasons:
(1) samplers are typically instructional pieces. Quilters who are stitching a sampler for practice do not want to spend money on lots of beautiful, expensive fabrics for a practice piece.
(2) sometimes people use samplers to show their skill at piecing and/or quilting & generally precision piecing is more noticeable with high contrast solid fabrics. They could do a different pair of high contrast fabrics for each block, but that would again, put the focus more on the fabrics rather than the skill of the piecer. By keeping the fabric choices simple, the perfection of each block is what grabs the viewer's attention.

But if you want to make your sampler with 200 different fabrics, there is no one to stop you. :)

I agree with Bree. It depends on what it is for.
I only made a few in all my quilting years since I am known on this board as a lover of Bargello quilts. Usually I picked my focus fabric and then some coordinating print. Do it your way, and be sure to enjoy the process. JMO.

I agree. I have sample blocks but I know they will all have a connection. I have for some reason different shades of navy that I believe will make them pop without going black.

For me, I'm autistic so a riot of color would not work, but if you're drawn to those then that is the way you should go. But make sure they are not connected in some way that isn't less noticeable, like types of fabrics. The few I have seen have been linked by type of fabric as formerly mentioned.

This is a similar question to scrappy quilts: controlled scrappy, or grab-out-of-a-paper-bag scrappy? It's all in the eye of the beholder.

I like a contolled sampler/scrappy to give some kind of unity

I've made a few that were totally scrappy, they all found homes with someone who loved them.