Finding myself hesitant to pick colours...
03-30-2016, 09:42 AM
#12
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 9,299
It can be a challenge, but I prefer to think of it as a puzzle to put together. I start with a fabric I love, then audition tone on tones and one or two of varying scale and contrast. I change my mind a lot and don't settle till I feel peace and joy. With the pattern you have linked to, I'd definitely mix up a number of prints, especially for a baby quilt where visual stimulation turns it into a toy, not just a quilt. If you're not confident, you could shop from a particular collection where the colors coordinate and prints are varied in scale already.
03-30-2016, 10:04 AM
#13
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Southern Michigan
Posts: 732
Watson, I looked at the photo of the baby quilt with the wide yellow ribbon and a big flower where a bow would sit. For your new color selections, think of the RECIPIENT, if you know the person you are making it for. Then, hold an idea in your mind, like RAINBOW, or SUMMER DAY, or BIG SALAD, and then your colors can be selected to fulfill the picture in your mind, colorwise. If you have already purchased your fabrics, lay them out on the floor. Wake up in the morning (say, 3 am) and with NO LIGHTS ON, or only a faint wisp of light from another room, stand and examine your fabrics with your NIGHT EYES. Your eyes see with rods for Black/White and grey. And cones for the colors which require light to work. Use your limited vision to see the values of all your fabrics together. Rearrange them, and then go back to sleep. Try to dream about cutting and sewing your fabrics, sometimes that helps. Then, decide on the RIBBON COLOR FIRST, then the FLOWER design. Then add in other fabrics that enhance these Focus points in your quilt. And be sure to show us your choices.
03-30-2016, 11:50 AM
#16
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Illinois
Posts: 2,140
The one tip that helped me the most before I started taking color theory classes was to google search for my main color plus the word "flowers". For example "yellow flowers". Then, pick my remaining colors from combinations that occur in nature, plus any neutrals I wanted. Yellow is usually considered a neutral anyways, so you may want to choose another color to search for and go from there, but here's the basic search I did:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=yellow+flo...ax=1&ia=images
As you can see, depending on which flower you go with, you can end up with oranges or blues or greens or browns, reds, pinks and so forth. Here's one example of what I might pick:
https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=...%2B(2).jpg&f=1
Colors: yellow, gold, yellow-orange, red, red-orange, green, yellow-green, white, black (could also add browns/tans)
In my experience most parents don't have problem with adding a little bit of blue to a baby quilt for a little girl -- especially since it has a flower on it. So you could always add a bit of blue. I'm not really sure you need a whole bunch of colors, though. You could add interest by picking different shades/tones/tints of other colors (yellow has the least variation in it of all the colors) or by changing the scale and/or visual texture of the prints. For example, in the link you provided, they have some large scale floral prints, those relatively small dots in the center of the flower, that pink on pink flower/vine(?) fabric that's 5 up from the bottom left corner, the close-together stripes that repeat in different parts of the quilt, and the bright pink, yellow & orange solids that really draw your eye straight to the flower.
If you attach a photo of the fabrics you've already picked, we could probably provide more suggestions about how to add interest to the quilt while still maintaining unity.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=yellow+flo...ax=1&ia=images
As you can see, depending on which flower you go with, you can end up with oranges or blues or greens or browns, reds, pinks and so forth. Here's one example of what I might pick:
https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=...%2B(2).jpg&f=1
Colors: yellow, gold, yellow-orange, red, red-orange, green, yellow-green, white, black (could also add browns/tans)
In my experience most parents don't have problem with adding a little bit of blue to a baby quilt for a little girl -- especially since it has a flower on it. So you could always add a bit of blue. I'm not really sure you need a whole bunch of colors, though. You could add interest by picking different shades/tones/tints of other colors (yellow has the least variation in it of all the colors) or by changing the scale and/or visual texture of the prints. For example, in the link you provided, they have some large scale floral prints, those relatively small dots in the center of the flower, that pink on pink flower/vine(?) fabric that's 5 up from the bottom left corner, the close-together stripes that repeat in different parts of the quilt, and the bright pink, yellow & orange solids that really draw your eye straight to the flower.
If you attach a photo of the fabrics you've already picked, we could probably provide more suggestions about how to add interest to the quilt while still maintaining unity.
03-30-2016, 01:44 PM
#18
Power Poster
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Outside St. Louis
Posts: 38,250
Use that quilt to go by. Decide the main color or print you want and just pick a variety to go with it.
Lay out the colors you picked and leave them lay, go by and look at them for several days before you start cutting.
Rearrange them until you are sure of your choices. Take a day or two.
Lay out the colors you picked and leave them lay, go by and look at them for several days before you start cutting.
Rearrange them until you are sure of your choices. Take a day or two.
03-30-2016, 06:44 PM
#19
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: kansas
Posts: 6,407
Watson--first, like many others, I loved that great modern quilt you posted a few weeks ago--so don't think you don't know color! That being said, check out some books on color theory--Ginny Beyer, Joen Wolfrom, Jean Wells, among others do a really good job of helping you understand color theory--it's not just color, but value and saturation that come into play. I like to find a picture of nature and pull colors from there--if you do that on line you can actually pixaliate the picture to really see all the different colors. Also, go to the paint store and start playing with color chip cards---they not only show a color, but usually show some tints, tones and shades on the same card. Good luck!
03-30-2016, 06:57 PM
#20
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: The Deep South near Cajun Country, USA
Posts: 5,442
Watson, I looked at the photo of the baby quilt with the wide yellow ribbon and a big flower where a bow would sit. For your new color selections, think of the RECIPIENT, if you know the person you are making it for. Then, hold an idea in your mind, like RAINBOW, or SUMMER DAY, or BIG SALAD, and then your colors can be selected to fulfill the picture in your mind, colorwise. If you have already purchased your fabrics, lay them out on the floor. Wake up in the morning (say, 3 am) and with NO LIGHTS ON, or only a faint wisp of light from another room, stand and examine your fabrics with your NIGHT EYES. Your eyes see with rods for Black/White and grey. And cones for the colors which require light to work. Use your limited vision to see the values of all your fabrics together. Rearrange them, and then go back to sleep. Try to dream about cutting and sewing your fabrics, sometimes that helps. Then, decide on the RIBBON COLOR FIRST, then the FLOWER design. Then add in other fabrics that enhance these Focus points in your quilt. And be sure to show us your choices.
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