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?

The best thing I can say is to keep trying. Pick out your favorite schemes from magazines and look at how they mixed print and color. I used to cut up my hancocks catalogue and just play with the swatch squares. Or embrace the two color concept as your own signature style and go with it. Plenty of museum pieces are just two colors.

I feel the same way. This has to be a special gift and I wasn't in the line! I have made three quilts so far. I call them ugly!!!!! It is hard to finish something that you don't really like. I am hoping that this gift will come in time. I am going to order kits that I like and maybe I will eventually get the special gift. Hang in there! We'll get it.

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

that's also why they sell kits....

If you really hate it, just buy kits. If you only hate it because you feel you aren't good at it, maybe the answer is to read a book on color theory for quilters and learn more about the subject, and play with some scraps to practice. Your local library probably has a couple of books to get you started.

Picking colors for me, is fun. (I guess I was in the correct line :) )

Another thing that can help you, those colored dots/numbers that are in the selvage. Use them to help you choose your color(s). Line up your choices, stand back 5 feet or greater and SQUINT (or remove your glasses). The squinting helps you see just the colors and not the prints.

Like most of our quilting endeavors, it does take practice.

That's one of the reasons I buy quilt kits. But I find the more I pick out fabrics the better I seem to do.

I Have been in your shoes. It seemed all my quilts were technically good, seams matched etc. But just lacked some real zip or pizzaz. One year when I attended International quilt show it finally dawned on me why I was just awed by the beautiful quilts. yes they had fabulous designs , but it was the colors. .. I made up my mind no more two or three colors , No more depending on solids to resolve indecition. I dove in , made mistakes but they still looked better than what I had been doing. A few things I learned along the way always have a light, dark and a medium it gives depth. For balance work to add more in each category , light dark and medium. Work on the color wheel , neigboring colors or opposite colors.
One trick is to focus on a season, for me its fall, when I look out and see the range of colors , thats why I like fall. If you like spring think of the beautiful colors at the garden center and why seeing them all in a mass appeals to you. Take the vision and pick your fabrics from them . Color inspiration can come from any where ..a painting ... a jelly roll of fabrics etc. There is a reason jelly rolls are popular .. part of it is the preselection of fabrics we may not have picked. maybe work with one to get you out of your color issue.
To overcome my issue(s), I made a quilt with 19 colors. I went to the store and told myself I only had 1/2 hour to pick, but allowed my self to pick 2 extras , just in case. It worked! I broke out of my issues. I still can get stuck now and again, but I like my final results better.
You can work through the whole color thing! Some LQS will have work shops specifically on this topic.

Get some kits! After a few of them, you will feel brave enough to move out to new colors and combinations.