I hate to pick colors
02-18-2011, 12:00 PM
#61
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Posts: 1,389
Originally Posted by thrums
Originally Posted by Bamagal
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?
I'm color-impaired too. Recently I gathered a few tips on colors.
:arrow: Select a print you really like. Look at the selvages and you'll see a series of dots that indicate the colors used in the print.
:arrow: Select some fabrics you like (or you think you like :wink: ), place them on a table, step back and squint at them. Do they do what you want them to? Also, the colors may work but you're not sure--it may be a matter of moving the colors in the stack.
:arrow: Lastly dealing with color-value from fabric in your stash, place them together on your printer and print in B/W. The value will become more clear.
Hope this helps.
I see this note fell right after one with the previous advice. :roll:
02-18-2011, 01:52 PM
#62
Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Mt. Wolf, PA
Posts: 131
I agree with all that has been said about how to pick out colors, and I have some problems doing that. But a lady gave me the best advice. She told me to pick a piece that I really liked, then to look along the selvage and there are dots of colors that are used in that piece. Then you can choose the color from those dots which ones you want to use. That advice has helped me a lot.
02-18-2011, 02:53 PM
#63
Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 4
Lots of good advise here on the Quilting board.
My favorite part is to pick out colors! I'm retired, but I wish someone would hire me to help people pick out fabrics.Here is some advise from some folks who teach Interior Design at the University level. It is for designing a room but I think it also applies to quilts.
First find a print fabric that you absolutely love (Or the person you are making the quilt for would absolutely love.) Priortize (Lordy, where is spell check when you need it?)the colors in that piece of fabric.And then relax and start playing And trust your instincts. All quilters are creative people-- otherwise they wouldn't be quilters.
Also try playing on a web site where you can put fabric on "a wall". I like it a lot better than toting bolts of fabric around a store. lol from wild Granny
My favorite part is to pick out colors! I'm retired, but I wish someone would hire me to help people pick out fabrics.Here is some advise from some folks who teach Interior Design at the University level. It is for designing a room but I think it also applies to quilts.
First find a print fabric that you absolutely love (Or the person you are making the quilt for would absolutely love.) Priortize (Lordy, where is spell check when you need it?)the colors in that piece of fabric.And then relax and start playing And trust your instincts. All quilters are creative people-- otherwise they wouldn't be quilters.
Also try playing on a web site where you can put fabric on "a wall". I like it a lot better than toting bolts of fabric around a store. lol from wild Granny
02-18-2011, 04:07 PM
#64
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Clearwater, FL
Posts: 2,328
Originally Posted by SuzyQ
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
Susan
I get really nervous about trying to pick out colors for quilts
- which is probably why I have so many UFO's
02-18-2011, 04:19 PM
#65
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Bay Area near San Francisco
Posts: 1,213
Originally Posted by Bamagal
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?
02-18-2011, 04:37 PM
#67
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Bay Area near San Francisco
Posts: 1,213
Originally Posted by JUNEC
What an awesome quilt - love your color choice
02-18-2011, 04:38 PM
#68
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: league city, texas
Posts: 619
i also have trouble with colors, and what goes with what...some of that is my upbringing with my mom, and her "checks and stripes do not go together" and "do not where blue and green together" (ya'all know, you had mothers too)...so i am color challenged when it comes to picking......good thing, i am so lucky that one of my sewing buddies is a natural at picking colors....so the rest of us always auditions our color choices at her house before we quilt..........gina
02-18-2011, 05:06 PM
#69
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: 25 yrs in TN; now back home in MI
Posts: 1,871
Originally Posted by IBQLTN
Originally Posted by thrums
Originally Posted by Bamagal
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?
I'm color-impaired too. Recently I gathered a few tips on colors.
:arrow: Select a print you really like. Look at the selvages and you'll see a series of dots that indicate the colors used in the print.
:arrow: Select some fabrics you like (or you think you like :wink: ), place them on a table, step back and squint at them. Do they do what you want them to? Also, the colors may work but you're not sure--it may be a matter of moving the colors in the stack.
:arrow: Lastly dealing with color-value from fabric in your stash, place them together on your printer and print in B/W. The value will become more clear.
Hope this helps.
I see this note fell right after one with the previous advice. :roll:
:lol: I restrained myself. :lol:
02-18-2011, 05:40 PM
#70
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Wilbur, WA
Posts: 757
Originally Posted by grumpy90650
i also have trouble with colors, and what goes with what...some of that is my upbringing with my mom, and her "checks and stripes do not go together" and "do not where blue and green together" (ya'all know, you had mothers too)...so i am color challenged when it comes to picking......good thing, i am so lucky that one of my sewing buddies is a natural at picking colors....so the rest of us always auditions our color choices at her house before we quilt..........gina
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