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IBQLTN 02-18-2011 12:00 PM


Originally Posted by thrums

Originally Posted by Bamagal
I love to piece. I love to quilt. I love to pick blocks!! I hate to pick colors. I can't look at fabric and mix up colors and prints. So my quilts tend to be two colors. White and either a print or a solid. I can mix a solid and a print, if I have a solid color that is also in the print. Then I guess I have three fabrics. I can't seem get the concept of color ranges. I don't know how to mix two prints. I can pick fabrics I like, but I can't mix them up. I've tried light, medium, dark, but then is one a solid, one a small print and one a big print. Do you see the problem?


I'm color-impaired too. Recently I gathered a few tips on colors.

:arrow: Select a print you really like. Look at the selvages and you'll see a series of dots that indicate the colors used in the print.

:arrow: Select some fabrics you like (or you think you like :wink: ), place them on a table, step back and squint at them. Do they do what you want them to? Also, the colors may work but you're not sure--it may be a matter of moving the colors in the stack.

:arrow: Lastly dealing with color-value from fabric in your stash, place them together on your printer and print in B/W. The value will become more clear.

Hope this helps.


I see this note fell right after one with the previous advice. :roll:

Yes, but you said it without ramblin' on like I did!

MamaYitu 02-18-2011 01:52 PM

I agree with all that has been said about how to pick out colors, and I have some problems doing that. But a lady gave me the best advice. She told me to pick a piece that I really liked, then to look along the selvage and there are dots of colors that are used in that piece. Then you can choose the color from those dots which ones you want to use. That advice has helped me a lot.

Wild Granny 02-18-2011 02:53 PM

Lots of good advise here on the Quilting board.

My favorite part is to pick out colors! I'm retired, but I wish someone would hire me to help people pick out fabrics.Here is some advise from some folks who teach Interior Design at the University level. It is for designing a room but I think it also applies to quilts.

First find a print fabric that you absolutely love (Or the person you are making the quilt for would absolutely love.) Priortize (Lordy, where is spell check when you need it?)the colors in that piece of fabric.And then relax and start playing And trust your instincts. All quilters are creative people-- otherwise they wouldn't be quilters.

Also try playing on a web site where you can put fabric on "a wall". I like it a lot better than toting bolts of fabric around a store. lol from wild Granny

JUNEC 02-18-2011 04:07 PM


Originally Posted by SuzyQ
You need to move near me and we can tag team ... I LOVE picking colors *now*. When I first started quilting I had only garmet sewed and was frozen at the thought of picking fabrics for a quilt class. The wonderful lady at the LQS ask my favorite color so we looked at floral fabrics that had a lot of different colors but was primarily purple. Then she had me look at the other colors in the fabric ... green, pink, yellow, and we went and pulled those colors. You just have to remember to look at the color and block out the print. Keep trying ... soon you will have a blast. Just pick a fabric with lots of colors to start. In the beginning I couldn't image pairing bright blue, bright red, deep yellow, and medium green but that's what I used in a block I made over the weekend. Bottom line is have fun!

Susan

I had someone do that when I made my first quilt - problem was I love Oriental fabrics & picked a fabric with white & black Cranes flying among gree trees - I sued it as my quilt backing- When I got the quilt done, I hated it. It is laying on the back of my sofa with the crane fabric side up.

I get really nervous about trying to pick out colors for quilts
- which is probably why I have so many UFO's

catmcclure 02-18-2011 04:19 PM

2 Attachment(s)

Originally Posted by Bamagal
I love to piece. I love to quilt. I love to pick blocks!! I hate to pick colors. I can't look at fabric and mix up colors and prints. So my quilts tend to be two colors. White and either a print or a solid. I can mix a solid and a print, if I have a solid color that is also in the print. Then I guess I have three fabrics. I can't seem get the concept of color ranges. I don't know how to mix two prints. I can pick fabrics I like, but I can't mix them up. I've tried light, medium, dark, but then is one a solid, one a small print and one a big print. Do you see the problem?

I love picking fabric colors, but if I'm trying to make a quilt with a lot of colors I pick up a fat quarter that has a lot of color and then I pick other fabrics that have the same or close to the same colors. See the 12 wonky star blocks I made.

JUNEC 02-18-2011 04:23 PM

What an awesome quilt - love your color choice

catmcclure 02-18-2011 04:37 PM


Originally Posted by JUNEC
What an awesome quilt - love your color choice

Thanks. I loved making it. The 12 blocks took me 4 hours, the cornerstones and corner blocks took almost 8 hours. Go figure.

grumpy90650 02-18-2011 04:38 PM

i also have trouble with colors, and what goes with what...some of that is my upbringing with my mom, and her "checks and stripes do not go together" and "do not where blue and green together" (ya'all know, you had mothers too)...so i am color challenged when it comes to picking......good thing, i am so lucky that one of my sewing buddies is a natural at picking colors....so the rest of us always auditions our color choices at her house before we quilt..........gina

thrums 02-18-2011 05:06 PM


Originally Posted by IBQLTN

Originally Posted by thrums

Originally Posted by Bamagal
I love to piece. I love to quilt. I love to pick blocks!! I hate to pick colors. I can't look at fabric and mix up colors and prints. So my quilts tend to be two colors. White and either a print or a solid. I can mix a solid and a print, if I have a solid color that is also in the print. Then I guess I have three fabrics. I can't seem get the concept of color ranges. I don't know how to mix two prints. I can pick fabrics I like, but I can't mix them up. I've tried light, medium, dark, but then is one a solid, one a small print and one a big print. Do you see the problem?


I'm color-impaired too. Recently I gathered a few tips on colors.

:arrow: Select a print you really like. Look at the selvages and you'll see a series of dots that indicate the colors used in the print.

:arrow: Select some fabrics you like (or you think you like :wink: ), place them on a table, step back and squint at them. Do they do what you want them to? Also, the colors may work but you're not sure--it may be a matter of moving the colors in the stack.

:arrow: Lastly dealing with color-value from fabric in your stash, place them together on your printer and print in B/W. The value will become more clear.

Hope this helps.


I see this note fell right after one with the previous advice. :roll:

Yes, but you said it without ramblin' on like I did!




:lol: I restrained myself. :lol:

Shelley 02-18-2011 05:40 PM


Originally Posted by grumpy90650
i also have trouble with colors, and what goes with what...some of that is my upbringing with my mom, and her "checks and stripes do not go together" and "do not where blue and green together" (ya'all know, you had mothers too)...so i am color challenged when it comes to picking......good thing, i am so lucky that one of my sewing buddies is a natural at picking colors....so the rest of us always auditions our color choices at her house before we quilt..........gina

My mother used to HATE the choices I made when dressing myself!! Too funny!! :lol:


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