THANK YOU !!!!!!many times over
 

I just wanted to thank everyone out there in quilting land !!!! I don't know what I have done without all of n help, support and comments. Being a newbie to quilting it can be very intimidating starting and even moving to the next project . I do wonder how all of you choose the colors for your quilts. I find patterns I love but not the colors. I have a very hard time matching new colors that I like. Hard to imagine the new colors in the quilt. Any suggestions would be oh sooo appreciated AGAIN THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR HELP AND GUIDANCE KATH :D

It is easy for some folks to put colors together and much harder for others. Find a friend who will go with you as a color coach (not dictator) to help you choose fabrics for your projects until you feel confident doing it yourself. An alternative is to get collections which are designed to go together. Enjoy your quilting!!

If they are the same color combination, I can do that pretty well, but when you get into a whole group of colors that don't have a common bond, I'm lost too. Don't worry about it. I think that is something that comes natural. If you like it, its okay!

I do find the color wheel to be of help. But with the fabrics having the color chart on the selvage is the biggest help of all. I like to look at the selvage and see where all the colors are in the fabric. If a color is the majority of the fabric I see what they complimented it with and choose fabrics with that dominant color. If I'm doing a quilt in all shades of one color I make sure they have the same undertones of blue or yellow. Color is the biggest thing most quilters struggle with. Look at home decorating and fashion magazines for how they use color.

I do something similar to Joyce888. I find a fabric I really like, then use that to pull other fabrics that match. I had a friend help with fabrics for my first quilt. She had a stack of gardening magazines and catalogs. We looked at them upside down (so you weren't focusing so much on the actual picture, just the colors), then brought the picture to the fabric store. She said home dec magazines are also a good choice. You want to view your selections in natural light, so I always bring my stuff over to a window to double check before I buy. i also have a small portable Ott light that I use in stores where there's no windows available.

Sometimes when I get "stuck" on color .. ask at the local quilt shop for assistance. If that is not available I use photos or magazine clippings for color inspiration. I have a large bulletin board over my cutting table where I clip and post color combos of interest to me. I once saw a instructor tell a group always pick a light and dark and a medium in the colors of interest. She went on to say most beginners fill quilts with medium and lack the contrast. Additionally she stressed a variety of scale of prints. I can still hear her voice when I go to pick fabrics.

I have found the folks in the local quilt shops to be very willing to help - they are a great resource. Of course, it does depend on the shop but generally, they enjoy helping you choose fabrics.

I do the same as Tartan does with the little dots on the selvage. Or I just take all th ebolts of fabric I like and lay them all out and then mix them up in different order to see if anything clashes. Sometimes the one I loved the most is the "clasher"and has to go!

I will sometimes use fabrics from the same collection. However, if I find a fabric that I love and want to use, I just go throught the LQS with the fabric in hand and try on different fabrics. When I pick my fabrics this way, I rarely go with "matching" but more of a "Go with" mentality. I look at different colors and values and sometimes a fabric that is standing by itself and not a color/print/pattern I would normally pick will actually look wonderful with my focus fabric. I go with colors that compliment and enhance each other. I've always had a flair for colors and picking the right colors to go together and that just spilled over into my quilting.

I usually pick out a print - main fabric I want to use and just try to pick colors from that. If I don't have any to match, then I just try to pick out other colors to look okay with it. I am starting to like scrappies more, much easier.

I first find the focus fabric, then carry it around with me, looking for the others. Right now, I have a bunch of fabrics (to use together) and no pattern. :p

Relax, this is something you can learn. You can download a color wheel if you want. Yes, by all means take a friend who knows color but ask her to comment after you make each choice, so you learn ... being told what to pick isn't doing active learning.

Look around you at nature, house designs [including furniture upholstery colors,] magazines, and books. Silently critique the quilts shown at your quilting guild/group. You'll find you know more than you thought.

If color choice problems persist please get an eye exam. Loss of color can mean cataracts and the eye doc may not even ask you about this. So tell the doc.

Enjoy your outings.

Always wondered what thoughs dots were for!

I've finally learned (mostly from a Jinny Beyer book) that 'go with' or 'bridges' is a lot more interesting than 'matching exactly'

For example - one has a royal blue and a kelly green - picking a turquoise or teal that 'bridges' the two colors usually is more interesting than trying to match exactly the blue or the green.

I still have a hard time with this also. I don't usually buy them all at once. I will buy fabric that I love that I don't have a project for. Then i use from my stash or when I decide on a project go looking.

I seem to not get either the right contrast or the color that will make it pop and provide movement and end up with a blah quilt.

when I am stuck though, I ask someone who makes quilts I admire.

I usually find fabric I love and find several colors that go with it then find a pattern. Some times I find a pattern and go looking for the fabric. I love color and have never had a problem working with them. My DM on the other hand had so much trouble putting fabrics together for her quilts. Some never fabric shop without their color wheel. In time for most it will start coming naturally.

I still struggle with the color thing. I think that is why most of the quilts I make are scrap quilts. Some how they usually seem to come out ok.

That is basically what I do....never thought of using the dots, but starting with one fabric and building from there.....the first fabric is the easiest to choose for me because it usually screams out to me "use me, use me! Once I find that first fabric, the rest of them seem to fall into place pretty easy. It also helps me to know in advance where this quilt will be used.....bedrooms don't get kitchen fabrics....bedroom with lilac colored walls won't get fabrics that are green (normally)....a couch throw for my mother won't get something sports oriented. I usually have an idea of what main color I want before I ever go to the store....much easier.

I agree this board is so wonderful! I would have never tried quilting if it hadn't been for this board and I have also been encouraged to try different things as well. Now I feel like I can make anything!!!!

i found that buying a good box of colored pencils and constructing my own "color" wheel from those and then just playing around with the colors: opposites, same family-different hues& values, in abstract doodlings made me comfortable with color. Way cheaper than doing it with fabric to start. My brother was a pastel artist who made these sensational abstracts where he gradually moved from one color to the next by using a range of the one from light to dark etc. Guess that is what gave me the idea. I find i can do this even when i travel which makes it fun and easy.

When I was new to quilting I would go to the LQS and choose a fabric that I liked and they would help my build the rest of the quilt. Most of them are really good at picking colors. Or I would go and say I want to make this quilt in a certain color way and they would help me. Now I mostly pick myself but usually have someone in the shop look at them before I buy to see if they think they work together. Just play with all the colors. Sometimes strange color combinations work.

I, too, suggest the use of a color wheel. It may take you a while to learn how to use it (complimentary colors, analagous colors, etc.) but you will "get it" soon and be on your way.

LOL, All of the above but I have a little cheater! My husband is a natural born shopper whose Mother taught him well! I should rent him out!!

I agree QB is the great. We can ask almost anything and get responses from all over the world. Great fun.

I always think if I like the fabrics together, then it works! After all, it's my quilt and I can do what I want. It usually works great, but I leave the fabrics spread out on my cutting table for a few days, just looking at them now and then. If I see one glaring at me, I'll pull it and replace it with another. By being able to look at the fabric, I can tell if I'm going to like the finished quilt.

Thank heavens my daughters have color sense. I do not. One or the other usually has the final say when I am buying fabric or putting together a quilt. My eldest has an artistic talent, she can but a bouquet of flowers on a table and they look artistically place. I set it on the table and it looks like I put a vase full of flowers on the table. Not sure what she does to the flowers, but people will come in and notice where mine they do not. Oh well.

But I do know what you mean about the board. If you need help, just ask. Usually there are enough comments to get a good understanding of what and how to do something.

Color lessons for the terrified quilter
 

Catchy title for the book. This article, an excerpt from the book, came in an email from Martingale this week. It is posted on their site. It is quite interesting. The book looks good, too, but you have to purchase that - the article is free. http://blog.shopmartingale.com/quilt...ified-quilter/

Yes, the selvage dots are a huge help and can get you going in the right direction. Another easy way to figure out color combinations is to look around at nature. Snap some photos of things that appeal to you and use those as a guide as well. It's also nice to breath in the outdoors once in a while...fringe benefit there. :-)

bearisgrey, Do you know the name of the Jinny Beyer book? The idea of "bridging' colors is new to me, and it would be interesting to check that out. Interesting conversation.

I just go scrappy! Can't pick colors woth beans! Some find it easy, I hate even thinking about it. I love scrappy quilts, and that's usually what I make, no matter the pattern.

I made the mistake of asking 4 expectant moms (one is my granddaughter, the others are great grand nieces) what color/theme they want...I should have just made the quilts & they would get what they get...now, I've had to buy bright pinks and blacks (not my favorites), and my granddaughter wants her baby's dragon quilt in "Foresty, kinda muted" colors...it's for the baby...so there will be two dragon quilts, one to decorate the room, and one for baby Alex!

Colors...here are two dragonfly blocks, one is a sample (colorful), one is in the girl's chosen colors (pastels)...same pattern...and the scrappy one is prettier (I think).

I have a very hard time picking colors still. And I found out that if I ask the person at the quilt shop, I get what they like, not what I like. So, I will take a magazine with me with a picture of a quilt and try and match that or buy a kit or find a quilt on a wall and say I want to make that quilt. That's where I am pretty much right now. And this is been going on for years. I am not great with colors still.

This is where your digital camera will help. Put the fabrics together that you think you might like and take a picture of it and then look at it a while to see if you like it. I do this all the time; it takes longer for me to chose color and design than anything else. Good luck