Unusual Color Combos?
03-29-2021, 04:50 AM
#22
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Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Carroll, Iowa
Posts: 3,477
Didn't know that the recipent's favorite color was purple when I made this lap quilt for her so I was so happy that she liked it. I quilted it using a pale green thread too so another 1st for me. 1st time making a disappearing hourglass. Think I've made all the disappearing patterns now unless a new one has risen since last year.
03-29-2021, 06:03 AM
#23
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Ohio
Posts: 2,991
Thank you everyone for your responses, so much to consider! I’ve been a huge Kaffe Fasset fan since I started quilting and have a fairly large stash of his fabrics, thanks for the reminder to look at his lines for inspiration. Right now I am in a solid colors quilt mode so thanks for all the wonderful color combo ideas!
03-29-2021, 09:46 AM
#24
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 104
You may want to look at team colors or school colors for combinations. I have always liked the colors contained in the Mardi Gras flag: Deep yellow, purple and green. They look so rich and regal. I was just watching television and the scene contained a room with a mustard-ish yellow and blue-ish purple that looked good.
03-29-2021, 03:27 PM
#25
Super Member
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Pacific NW
Posts: 9,555
I thought about this question and decided I was having a hard time answering it because I can't think of a single color combination that I would consider unusual. I've made quilts that run the gamut. I have a pineapple quilt made out of drab civil war repros that is drop dead gorgeous. I have made several quilts that were bright, saturated colors against black. I also have a few that are in the blue/green/purple-with-white-background family, and I'm currently playing with one that is all pinks/oranges/yellows/reds with a white background. Another color combination that usually elicits gasps from the audience is red and black on a white background.
03-29-2021, 06:10 PM
#26
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 448
Subdued is often more a function of lack of contrast in values across a quilt face. Play with not just the colours chosen but the values they contain (see colour wheel, below).
For instance, one suggestion was to do a quilt in pink and aqua. That could end up being a very subdued quilt indeed, but what if you make the pink a dark cerise, and the aqua both a traditional pale blue-green AND a rich, electric teal?
Jean Wells always says, choose a palette and then add a drop of "poison"...usually a colour directly across the colour wheel from whatever you are mostly including in the quilt. In the pink and aqua quilt that might be bright chartreuse or a deep purple.
To add interest to a quilt, ask how you can insert contrasts....contrast in scale (one huge block, a couple medium, many small), a contrast in value (a block in a monochromatic scheme but with lights, darks and mediums of that colour), or contrast in colours (three colours equidistant from each other on the colour wheel = triadic colour scheme), or contrasts in shapes.
For instance, one suggestion was to do a quilt in pink and aqua. That could end up being a very subdued quilt indeed, but what if you make the pink a dark cerise, and the aqua both a traditional pale blue-green AND a rich, electric teal?
Jean Wells always says, choose a palette and then add a drop of "poison"...usually a colour directly across the colour wheel from whatever you are mostly including in the quilt. In the pink and aqua quilt that might be bright chartreuse or a deep purple.
To add interest to a quilt, ask how you can insert contrasts....contrast in scale (one huge block, a couple medium, many small), a contrast in value (a block in a monochromatic scheme but with lights, darks and mediums of that colour), or contrast in colours (three colours equidistant from each other on the colour wheel = triadic colour scheme), or contrasts in shapes.
03-30-2021, 11:02 AM
#27
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 448
The easiest way to push out into the colour world is to use the colour wheel. If you love blue, find two other colours on the colour wheel equidistant from the blue you love...ie yellow-green and red-violet, both are two "stops" along the colour wheel below.
I saw a fun way to balance the colours in a project. You have two colours you want to work with...put a penny on their positions on the colour wheel. Add a third penny in a way that balances the positions of the pennies. Fun!
I saw a fun way to balance the colours in a project. You have two colours you want to work with...put a penny on their positions on the colour wheel. Add a third penny in a way that balances the positions of the pennies. Fun!
03-30-2021, 01:25 PM
#28
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 775
You can do solid colors and still do Kaffe! 
This is using his 'shot cottons' which are gorgeous, and some batiks. I love jewel tones, all the jewel tones! His fabric have definitely inspired me to play with color!
This is using his 'shot cottons' which are gorgeous, and some batiks. I love jewel tones, all the jewel tones! His fabric have definitely inspired me to play with color!
