I hate to pick colors
02-18-2011, 07:38 PM
#71
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Stony Brook, NY
Posts: 1,225
I enjoy picking out fabrics and color schemes. One time a student of mine said to me - You can take the ugliest fabrics and make them work. I guess that was a back handed compliment, but I'll take it.
Get a color wheel and play around with it. Another oldie but goodie hint is to find a print that you absolutely love. On the selvedge there are usually dots that are used by the fabric printers to create the print. Each dot represents a color in the print. Use these dots to find coordinating fabrics that have those colors in them. Sometimes, I don't even use the original print in the quilt.
Get a color wheel and play around with it. Another oldie but goodie hint is to find a print that you absolutely love. On the selvedge there are usually dots that are used by the fabric printers to create the print. Each dot represents a color in the print. Use these dots to find coordinating fabrics that have those colors in them. Sometimes, I don't even use the original print in the quilt.
02-18-2011, 08:49 PM
#72
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Brownwood TX
Posts: 747
Originally Posted by NDQuilts
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.
02-18-2011, 10:40 PM
#73
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 4,116
Picking the colours is most of the fun for me - my friends even get me to do it for them, so we have a nice arrangement where I get them to choose the focus fabric and we do it together after that. I look on it as a time to teach them some colour theory and that's really what they want me to do.We have stages of "graduating" and doing it independently along the way. Perhaps you might have a quilting friend who can assist you at times?
02-19-2011, 08:16 AM
#75
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Salem, OR
Posts: 320
Do you ever go to a quilt show and just enjoy looking at quilts from a distance, forget the details for a moment, enjoy the color! Do you get that same sense of excitement when you walk into a quilt store, do some fabrics "speak to you"? Let yourself go and enjoy color, don't over analyze. I think the difference between those who say they enjoy picking colors and those who don't is self-confidence.
Let yourself be a kid again. There are too many color police out there that will stifle you. You will get everyone else's reactions but not your own and you owe it to yourself to see what pleases you.
Let yourself be a kid again. There are too many color police out there that will stifle you. You will get everyone else's reactions but not your own and you owe it to yourself to see what pleases you.
02-19-2011, 08:20 AM
#76
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Kawartha Lakes, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 854
Sometimes (for quilts and for glasswork) I print out several sheets of a colouring page and get out my pastels or crayons....or you could use the Paint program on your computer to do the same. That lets you audition some choices before heading to the stash or fabric store.
02-19-2011, 08:28 AM
#77
Super Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Dallas area, Texas, USA
Posts: 3,042
[quote=grammy Dwynn]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.
...
I love finding fabrics that have those colored dots. Wish they all did.
Another helpful way of looking at your work is through a peephole device from the hardware store (designed to check out visitors before you open the door). I saw that hint on Simply Quilts one time, and it's a good one for anyone whose sewing room is smaller than a basketball court. Also, I have a red cellophane values finder, which was another suggestion I saw on Simply Quilts years ago. I don't know if they're still being sold, but it does help you decide if there's enough contrast among your fabrics. If you can't get one of those, you can take a digital picture and change it to gray scale on your computer. That will reveal the levels of contrast, both of color and pattern variations.
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.
...
I love finding fabrics that have those colored dots. Wish they all did.
Another helpful way of looking at your work is through a peephole device from the hardware store (designed to check out visitors before you open the door). I saw that hint on Simply Quilts one time, and it's a good one for anyone whose sewing room is smaller than a basketball court. Also, I have a red cellophane values finder, which was another suggestion I saw on Simply Quilts years ago. I don't know if they're still being sold, but it does help you decide if there's enough contrast among your fabrics. If you can't get one of those, you can take a digital picture and change it to gray scale on your computer. That will reveal the levels of contrast, both of color and pattern variations.
02-19-2011, 06:11 PM
#78
Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: arizona
Posts: 66
i love to pick colors and coordinates. generally i fine one main print that i really love and then work around that finding other pieces that work with it. i usually end up putting in one solid with 5 or more prints around the main piece. and i usually end up making the body of the quilt first and then going and getting fabric for borders and backing that i like with it.
02-20-2011, 01:54 PM
#80
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Winchester, VA
Posts: 1,552
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?
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