To me a neutral color is a color that can be used with any other color in that quilt and still look good. It depend a lot upon the shade of the fabric and what colors that you are using with it. For example I am working on a quilt and I have this soft pink material that has more then one shade in it and that is my back ground that I am using for my neutral color. From there I am using different shades of Aqua, burgundy, pink, blue and greens. When I making a quilt that is not scrappy I try to keep my colors down to 5. They can be different shades of the 5 colors. For me that just makes it so much easier. I don't know how to post a picture. But I hope it helps some!