Muddy fabric ?
 

I am going to need some muddy colored fabric for a guild meeting. What do you consider "muddy color". I am leaning towards a brownish blackish gray. :rolleyes: Thanks for suggestions.

Muddy to me is any fabric that looks dirty. I wouldn't think it would be a specific shade of color.

Look into batiks. Often they are muddy colors of blends of grey, brown and black. Hard to use unless you want muddy.

I don't think there is a good definition for muddy that everyone agrees on. To me, it's a shade (mixed with black), or a tone (mixed with grey). I found a good description of these here - http://color-wheel-artist.com/hue.html - but the term "muddy" is not used, so that's my own interpretation.

To me, 'muddy' means colors that aren't pure hues, but are mixed with gray or black to tone them down. They can be of any hue. (In other words, it doesn't mean, fabric the color of mud.)

If you google 'blue fabric' and check the images, the first image is a pure, clear blue, and the third is a 'muddy' blue.

https://www.google.com/search?q=blue...w=1158&bih=606

I agree with Joe's Mom. To me a muddy fabric is any color, but very muted in hue.

I agree. Muddy to me is same as a muted color.

Look at some of the Basic Gray Grunge line of fabrics--they are mottled in earth tones.

I guess it would depend on the purpose of the meeting. If you are making a group project or doing a swap, I would define "muddy" as anything that is brown, grey or black ... or a combination thereof.

If it's a color theory class, I would look for fabrics that combine complementary colors (red & blue-green, orange & indigo-blue, yellow & indigo-violet or green & red-violet). Any of those combinations will result in a greyish "muddy" look -- especially when both colors have similar saturation of color.

That said, I probably overthink these things. I'm sure any fabric that generally reminds you of mud will be just perfect. :thumbup:

There is quite a lot of information about muddy colors in the painting world as muddy colors are used by painters. Basically it is any color that has had gray or black added. Muddy colors can be any color and can range in value from light to dark. So when you are looking at fabric first pick a very clean clear color and then compare that to other fabric of the same color family to get the contrast of a more "muddied" color and see if that helps.

Agree with earthtones......

Yes, this is also my opinion! Well said, Joe'smom

Exactly. When I learned to quilt in the early 1980s from Mary Ellen Hopkins (It's Okay If You Sit on My Quilt), she was big on "muddies" used to enhance true/pure/saturated colors. Muddies are any color that are not truly saturated, pure color. Like Dunster and joe's mom have said, they have gray or black added. They are kind of like a flat musical note. :)
But, honestly they are not at all flat in a quilt; if used with "real" colors, they make things quite eye appealing.

Jan in VA

Hmmm - maybe you need clarification from the guild as to what they mean by muddy. (no pun intended)