Do you have an 'Eye for Color'?
05-06-2013, 07:28 AM
#21
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Location: East Oklahoma - pining for Massachusetts
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Gee, I wonder if this is why I have done so many scrappy quilts. I just throw everything together so that NOTHING stands out. Although I did an all blue Log Cabin, and a tan and brown Log Cabin that came out quite well.
05-06-2013, 08:17 AM
#22
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Monmouth, Oregon
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That's what I do, find a "focus" fabric then choose coordinating colors from that piece.
If I am stuck when picking out colours, I use the colour dots from the selvage to help. The manufacturer puts the dots along the selvage of every colour that is printed in the fabric and you can't go wrong if you choose fabrics that match the dots. I usually try to pick a variety of small and larger scale prints in those colours to add some variety to the quilt top but sometimes I just go with blenders or solids too.
05-06-2013, 08:48 AM
#23
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Location: Live Oak, Texas
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I don't know if it my love of colors or maybe because I also paint but I have never had a problem putting colors together. My DM made beautiful hand made quilts but she had so much trouble with colors so it took her forever to put her fabrics together for a quilt. She always worked it out but more than once I have seen her take a top apart and redo because she did not like the colors she used.
05-06-2013, 09:13 AM
#25
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Location: Canadian in Minnesota
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I have no sense of color or whether something is medium, light or dark. Usually I end up with all of my fabrics in exactly the same tone and the finished product ends up losing the pattern. I tried painting once and despite having a choice of and using bright colors, my finished product actually ended up a muddy gray-brown. Given my limitations, I am so very thankful when people post photos of their lovely quilts because then I have a starting point for the colors of my own quilt.
05-06-2013, 10:04 AM
#26
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Location: Rapid City, SD
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Another idea for choosing colors is to pick a fat quarter that has the colors you want to use - then coordinate the rest of the fabric to the fat quarter. I think a person can learn how to pick colors - I spend a lot of time in quilt shops watching what other people choose and many times will ask them why they made that particular choice. One can always learn something.
05-06-2013, 10:56 AM
#27
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: NE Missouri
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I saw a helpful video (don't ask me where but I think on her website) by Jenny Beyer that was very helpful. I think practice helps. There is even a color test that you can take on the computer where they ask you to arrange colors in a sequence (again, don't ask me where I saw and did it). That was an eye-opener. My excuse was that the monitors didn't always show true colors! The wheel is helpful as well and photos and then put on computer is really helpful to me.
05-06-2013, 11:07 AM
#28
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Location: California
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Go to a hardware store and get some of those paint color strips. Get the ones that have several shades on each strip. Then just play with them. Look at them in different light, outside on a sunny day, an overcast day, inside by the windows at night under house lights. Then when you have some combinations you like go pick out fabric. And it is really all about what looks good to you.
05-06-2013, 11:56 AM
#29
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05-06-2013, 01:06 PM
#30
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You can get books on color theory...try your local library.
I used to have some trouble with putting colors together. But I started working in a LQS 5 years ago, and have grown in this area by observing my employer (who is an expert). I like to begin with a focus fabric, and then choose other fabrics to go with it. The selvedge dots help, but it really takes practice.
I used to have some trouble with putting colors together. But I started working in a LQS 5 years ago, and have grown in this area by observing my employer (who is an expert). I like to begin with a focus fabric, and then choose other fabrics to go with it. The selvedge dots help, but it really takes practice.
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