themadpatter

How do you decide how many colors to use in a quilt? I think I need more plaids, so I'm tabling that one til after the next 50% off sale at Goodwill. So, I think I'll start planning one using Name That Pattern, aka Dogwood Blossoms.
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So, here's the question: how do you decide what colors to use? The colors I used for the initial experiment would be great for a baby quilt, but I'm probably making this one for my bed. And I hate pink, as well as most pastels, so a whole bunch of these is all the way out. I'm a Capricorn, which I jokingly refer to as the Sign of Homogeneity. Nice and orderly, that's us. But i have a feeling that if i did them all the same 2 colors, it would be boring and it would all ooze together and lose the block design in a sea of all over pattern. So, what do you do? Besides buying yardage that's all from one fabric collection. To me that's kind of like cheating, lol.

wesing

For a block like this, I like to see two colors used within each block, but the blocks different from one another. One might be purple and yellow, another green and blue, another red and pink, etc. since this block is made of four identical units, you could make each quarter block different if you wanted to, and that would give a scrappier look.

Geri B

2 colors thruout. Would make it look almost like a Celtic design, with the loops intertwining....can the blocks be turned 180* to match the loop colors? Would have to do on EQ....

QuiltE

Agree .... the secondary design would come through.
Whereas in a multi colour, you would just end up with a multi-colour effect ..... with this block.


More importantly ... you asked, how do you decide?
Lately, I have been learning how to with photos.
Copy and paste, side by side to see how they look.
The snipping tool is phenomenal for this!!

Also playing with colour effects within Word can help give ideas for other colours and such.

SuziSew

Love this block. If you don't want a a 2 color quilt (3 with the background fabric) I would use one constant throughout, then you can switch up the the others. Like Geri B. and QuiltE it should give you a lovely secondary pattern when all together.

Kitsie

I immediately thought of Black, gray and white. Just saying'

Jordan

I think your 2 color block is very pretty and nice contrast. Are you planning a scrappy quilt or making all the same block? Your block would be very pretty if you just used those two colors in the whole quilt.

themadpatter

If you do it on EQ will you let me see what it looks like?

klswift

Every quilt is different. I know that sounds like a cop-out, but, it is true. Scrappy quilts have absolutely everything and look great, but so do black and whites and other 2 color quilts. I think your 2 colors look very nice together and I don't think it would be boring. The block is very interesting and the blue has lots of tiny colors. When you complete the top, if you think it needs something more, add multiple borders. Perhaps the blues with a tiny green, maybe even flange the green. But, whatever you decide to do, please post your finished quilt.

platyhiker

One thing to think about when selecting your fabrics is what range of the light - medium - dark spectrum you are covering. I really like quilts that include some dark fabrics, ideally some dark tone-on-tone (so it looks like a solid fabric at a distance, but has some visual texture close up). I think a lot of quilts that have just light and medium and fabrics gain a "wow" factor when some dark fabric is added.

The pink and blue block in your picture is very pretty. You could try creating one with a darker fabric as one of the colors and see if that appeals to you.