dunster

When I make a scrappy quilt, I don't pay much attention to anything other than value. I use batiks and prints and solids and mix them all together. Many of the fabrics clash with each other, and often clashing fabrics are right beside each other. However, there are probably at least 100 fabrics in each quilt, each one is only 1" wide, and I think they all play well together. I never seem to have enough light fabrics, so a medium fabric may get mixed in where the lights should be. The same medium may get mixed in with the darks in another block. So I'm probably breaking all your rules - but I like to use up my scraps. I wouldn't buy all these fabrics for the purpose of putting them together, but hey, scrappy is scrappy! If your friend's quilts really look bad, she just isn't cutting the fabrics into small enough pieces. ;-)

Glassquilt

Like others my first thought was possible color blindness. We had one female customer who was color blind, very unusual for a woman. But she saw value - grays, blacks & white. She had to trust other to pick her colors for her.

Has she asked for help? Has she commented on the appearance of some quilts? Perhaps wholecloth quilts or monochromatic quilts.
Value: You can make a black & white copy of fabrics and study how light/dark they are. I sometimes scan them and change the jpg to grayscale.

oksewglad

Great comments! Love the gray scale idea!

QuiltNGanny

I want to learn more about how colors work together. So I got what I think is a great book on color for quilters and have started working my way through it. I invited another quilter and an artist friend to join me on the journey. We each have different ideas of color and what we like working with so it is a challenge to let each of us grow in the direction we are bent. Maybe you and your friend could enjoy a similar journey.

BrendaK

Does she really like the fabric she has? Where did she get it (purchased, given)? Maybe like someone said she just didn't cut it small enough. How does she feel when the quilts are finished? I have gone shopping with friends that when I looked at their picks I thought "What was she thinking". But then maybe they are thinking the same thing about my picks. Good Luck. BrendaK

bearisgray

Maybe she's just overly frugal?

alikat110

Paint chips. Oh, and on the selvages of most fabric is a coordinating dots section. If she uses these, she will eventaully be able to tell on her own.

jaciqltznok

I have one I can sell cheaper than that.
You might also want to suggest a Ruby Beholder or even the color/value finders. They are red and green...I prefer these to the Ruby beholder!

seamstome

I think she is just committed to using these pieces up because she likes them individually and they are LQS quality. She buys nice fabric when she buys it. I think somebody is right she needs to do like a 1" log cabin instead of a 2 in log or a 2 1/2 in bargello

The salvage and quilting magazine/home dec magazine is great. I happen to have hundreds of quilting magazines that a friend gave to me to take to the guild. I am going to pick a few and she what she likes and why.

No she knows they dont look quite right but she doesnt know what is wrong. Right now, even though we have been friends for 15 years we have just started quilting together the past six or eight months so she is working on things already partially done.

This is the first time we have put a colorway for a quilt together from scratch and she did see how I did it versus how she did it. She just picks fabrics she likes and then tries to pull colors out but something is getting lost in translation. In the last quilt she was doing at my house was a nine patch, she put a large scale bubble gum pink with bright green print next to a burgundy marble, the opposite square was a 80's medium blue calico combined with bright purple solid. I thought my eyes were going to bleed. I must have looked funny when she held it up because she said Im not good at this am I and can you help me save this? I said no you are not and no I cannot but I will help you learn to pick.

sewcrafty

This is what I was going to suggest. Great book. Also, ck was right on about value. If your friend has the ability to take a pic of her fabrics, have her look at them in gray scale and then sort her fabric accordingly. Color is a tricky thing.