AnnieSue

I tend to notice color patterns in photos I've taken more than when I saw places in person. Try taking pictures of gardens.

petpainter

I find my focus fabric first, too, if I'm not making it to match anything. Then I add to it. There is usually a fabric that just speaks to me, and off I go. That is my favorite part of the whole process. I am kind of a "matchy" person which some people don't like, but it works for me! My Art background may help a bit, too.

AnnT

Unless it's for someone who preferred colors I know or have requested, I choose what appeals to me at the time - even when it's for someone else.

Snooze2978

Libby, I'm with you there about color, etc. I think most of my time is spent trying to work out a color scheme for the pattern I picked out. Right now I'm working on quilts for all in my congregation (have a very small group) so I've asked them on occasion what their favorite colors are, what colors are in their homes, etc. So that helps in my decisions. So then I just have to see what I have in my stash that will work together with the pattern.

debbiemarie

I look at the precut sets for ideas and have been really happy with the ones I have used. I prefer bright colors I am working on a purple violet yellow greens black and blues right now and enjoy the colors very much. I take a picture of the fabric before I start viewing the colors they the camera lense helps me

MargeD

I usually pick out a focus fabric, then pull fabrics to go with it, and you can always check the dots on the selvedge to be sure you get fabrics that will coordinate. I get inspiration from everywhere, magazines, the quilts posted on QB, and various quilt web sites, and if a fabric speaks to me, jumping into my cart, I try to listen and take it home with me. LOL. Once I purchased some fabric for a backing on sale for $2.99/yd. at a quilt shop, same quality fabric, they were just making room for new fabric, however; I listened when it told me it wanted to be front and center. It turned out to be a wonderful quilt and I got lots of compliments on it and it raised over $1,000 for my church.

madamekelly

Well said. I also have made a New Years resolution to buy no fabric this year, so I am forced to become very creative to use only what I have.

crafty pat

I love color and when I see a fabric I love I buy it then choose a pattern. Then I go looking for the best colors I need to go with it. I do buy a lot of the medleys from Keepsake Quilting. I choose the fabric I like beat and order several yards of it then by the half yard bundle that goes with it. The quilts always turn out beautiful.

Jennifer23

I pick colours in three ways:

1. Choose a colour scheme, and find fabrics that match it. Usually this is just two colours (pink/brown, navy/tan, yellow/grey). I add a neutral (usually white or cream) to moderate the intensity of the colours of the quilt.

2. Find a focus fabric, then find things that match it. I made a very interesting green/yellow/orange quilt this way (it sounds like a horrible combination, but worked out very well, because the greens and yellows were in the print on the first orange). This is the most free-form approach; it scared me at first, but now I like it as a way of taking advantage of fabric sales.

3. Take a picture of something with pretty colours (sunset, flowers, etc), then use https://kuler.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/ to pull a colour scheme out of it. To pick colours from a picture in Kuler, just click the camera in the upper right, select your picture, and it will pick out colours for you. You can choose a different "colour mood" from the list on the left, or just drag the pointers around the picture to get a colour combination you like. I signed up for an account so that I can save my colour schemes, but I often just take a screen shot, and save it to my tablet to take to the quilt store.

Whatever method you choose, even if a quilt doesn't end up as you envisioned, someone will love it!

Rose_P

I often start with a beautiful print that I like a lot and try to coordinate other fabrics based on the colors found in my feature fabric, using the row of dots when possible. I find it useful to try to mix up large/small prints and solids, and of course a range of light to dark. While I'm in that process I line up my fabrics in various order to see how they'd look. Colors can be tricky, and one you think will go might not, or some really improbable combinations sometimes work well.

Here's a nifty free tool that would be very useful for finding colors in an inspiration picture. http://www.cssdrive.com/imagepalette/index.php

You upload any picture you like and it will break it down into a color palette instantly and it even sorts them as light, medium and dark.

Here's another interesting web tool for exploring what color combinations you might like and what proportions of them might work well in combination. http://labs.tineye.com/multicolr/#co...9,12,20,19,20;

I should point out that since that one picks random pictures on the Internet only for colors, you may sometimes see images that are offensive in some way. They're tiny thumbnails and you just wouldn't click on any of the questionable ones. The vast majority of them will be quite ordinary. To change the proportions of the colors that occur, you grab a little slider in the box showing the color (lower right) and slide it up or down. It will show images that have the percent of each color you pick. There's a tiny trash can on each color if you want to remove one you picked. It only lets you pick 5 at a time, but that's usually plenty to get an idea. Have fun!