I was wondering, how does everyone come up with such complimentary colors in your quilts? I like earth tones, so everything I pick are kinda dark. My wife says I can't match colors :? The material I've found has hues of brown/tan, some yellows, some lite blues in sky. I look at some of the wonderful quilts you all have made and posted pics of on here and wonder how you know what colors go good together.
Oh, another question please. How many yards of material does it take to make a queen size quilt?
Thank you,
Jack

Going to the fabric shop & placing the bolts next to each other with the pattern picture in hand is the best way to assemble the colors. Never depend on your memory when going to purchase a particular color.

Fabric requirements for a queen size quilt depends on the pattern used.

I throw them in a pile and grab whatever comes out?

Honestly you just have to look at the fabric side by side with an idea of how you want to use it in your pattern. Remember that black tends to become a background and brights/lights will look closer to the eye. Other than that... do what seems right to you. I once made a quilt with orange, blue and purple. I didn't think they went together. But it turned out really nicely. So feel free to take a chance on any color choices.

Jack I go with what I like and if it doenst go together sure hate it and then some......

But I paint a lot of show cars and I have a good sense of what works with what. but since there is no rules in quilting I just go for it!!

Billy

If you pick a focus fabric in your earth toned background that has a few other colors in it, you can then pick some fabrics in the other colors. They don't have to match exactly, but they should blend well together. They can be prints, plain, marble, etc. Keep the pattern you want to use in mind. If there's a color that is really overpowering, you can use small amounts and it will give it some punch.

Look at some of the collections on the fabric manufacturers websites. You will get an idea of what looks good together.

Good luck!

I usually pick out a focus fabric first. That's the one you would buy even if it was your lunch money! Then I match the colors in it. You can't always match perfectly, but it's easy to find something that blends.

I agree with go with what you like, but if you feel color challenged there are two tricks that might help...

1. Buy the all the fabric for a quilt from one fabric line. After all the manufacturer do make an effort to coordinate the look, so take advantage of it. This where charm packs/layer cakes/fat quarter packs/ etc. come in handy.

2. Another trick is a trip to the paint store-- yep the paint store. Those free paint chip brochures have wonderful professionally coordinated color combinations. Pick up a few of those and march off to the fabric store and let those guide your fabric purchases.


I am sure others will chime in with some of the tricks they use to pick fabric.

Jack I look at a color wheel when I'm not sure. Look at the main color of your focus fabric and then look at the total opposite of the color wheel. Sometimes this works for me.

I have learned alot about colors by buying jelly rolls, layer cakes and the whatnot.

I see how other people put colors together and then I try my own thing.

If your focus fabric has the little colored dots on the selvage, I have heard that it is the test ink runs for the fabric, so if you pick out some of those colors, they should blend nicely. I have looked at them a few times when I had fabric that had the dots on the selvage, and it seemed to me that this method might help if one was stuck when picking coordinating colors.