Choosing the Colors for Your Quilts

Image by dannie4852 via Flickr

Greetings Quilter,

Are you ready to streamline choosing colors for your quilts?

If you are like most quilters, you spend hours in the quilt
shop and sorting through your stash trying to decide what
colors of fabric you will use in your quilt.

I have been known to spend weeks with fabric laid out waiting
to be sure that I really want to use those fabrics in my quilts.

Several years ago, I took a class in hand dying fabric which
gave me a better understanding of the color wheel and the
difference between yellow-green and blue-green and why they
don't really go together most of the time.

Even so, combining the blue-green with other colors as I plan
a quilt is still challenging to me.

Should I include the red?  How about a yellow?  Will this print
look good with its black, blue and white?

And how much of each fabric should I use?

A guest on our Eavesdrop on a Telephone Conversation had a
great idea for choosing colors for your quilts.

Use photographs you like.

No kidding!  Her theory is that nature puts colors together
that "go" together, so why not use the wisdom of nature?

After the call, I decided to make a quilt using her strategy.
I found a photograph I particularly liked, and then found
fabric and made a quilt.

It was quite fun to be able to rely on the photo to guide me
for the colors of fabric, and not a color wheel.

Once the quilt was finished, I put it next to the photograph,
and was interested to see how it all worked.

http://how-to-quilt.com/articles/1504-joen-ives.php

Happy Quilting!

Penny Halgren
www.How-to-Quilt.com
www.TheQuiltingCoach.com

P.S.  The proportions of color in the quilt are different from
the photograph, but you can still see them.  I'm anxious to try
another quilt using that technique:

http://how-to-quilt.com/articles/1504-joen-ives.php

P.P.S.  For additional resources, check out my blog:

http://quilterpenny.wordpress.com/

You'll find all of the daily emails so you can search for
articles about tons of quilting topics!
www.How-to-Quilt.com
www.TheQuiltingCoach.com
www.QuiltBlockLibrary.com

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La Mesa, CA  91941


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