Favourite treat

Pumpkin pie is my favourite and while mellow yellow is my favourite, orange is starting to lean on that choice.  But then orange is right next to yellow on the colour wheel so that would make them kissing pumpkins!  


Green, the chartreuse shade, is fast becoming my favourite 'neutral'.  Again, another close relationship on the other side of yellow.   


And the crisp air of autumn and the hint of wood smoke.   Now there is  a real treat!


The bunny in the cabbage is the latest thrift shop find and I'm out looking for the perfect thread.  Not a lot of choices locally so I may need to treat myself to some on-line shopping.


It would be a real treat if this gorgeous weather would hold for a wee bit longer and them I'll be quite happy to curl up with a cup of the hot stuff.  In my case that isn't hot chocolate but  coffee.  A warm pumpkin slice, a dab of whipping cream and a few sips of hot black coffee is all the treat I need!

Focus Colours

Often a fabric can inspire a colour scheme. Some companies have colour bars along a selvage edge that shows the colours used in a fabric. These are not an indication of the amount or percentage of colour. But they are a place to start. If you want something very similar you must identify the amounts of colour used for the background, the main colours, and the accent.

Viewing the fabric without colour will help identify the values, light, medium and dark. I put the fabric in my printer/scanner and printed out a black and white photocopy. I also cut off the coloured dots printed on the fabric selvage. This fabric has 15 colours in total.

The fabric I chose for my example is an old fabric I got in a sale bin some years ago. It is Regal by Spiegal. It appealed to me but I have never quite figured out what to do with it.

I like to shop in my own closet first. The background was a bit of a challenge to find. Then I decided to add some browns, blues, oranges and yellows with a wee bit of green and one purple as an accent.

I spread out my choices to see if anything sticks out and doesn't work.

I also arrange the colour groups to show proportion.

Often this is as far as I go before I start cutting fabric.

But if you want a more permanent reference, especially if you need to purchase additional fabrics you can make up a visual reference.

I used a sheet of white paper and glued a 4 inch square of the focus fabric in the centre. Then I cut 1 inch squares of my chosen fabric and tried to keep a colour family on each side. Not showing up very well are letters identifying my Light, my Bright, my Dark. I need to remember not to forget the percentage I will use of these fabrics.

In this case the fabric has come first. I hadn't any pattern in mind. I was wondering what I could do as I was picking, choosing and making up my visual. I like the Bird's in the Air block. The large triangle is a nice size to feature my theme fabric. I could use the colours for all the different 'birds'. I made up a quick block, about 9 inches. hmm, I'm not liking my background. I think it is too pink so I shall be taking my colour chart off to the fabric store to see if I can find a better background.

Picking fabric and choosing colour schemes is my favorite quilt activity. It isn't something to angst about. It is very personal and we all see colour differently. What appeals to one will not necessarily appeal to another and it is not surprising that a general consensus is hard to come by when you ask a few people for their opinions. It often helps to sleep on it and then please yourself!

Of what value is it to you?

The third colour workshop I taught was very much hands on. We talked about light, medium, dark, as well as bright and dull. Colour is the first thing people will notice about a quilt. But without good use of the fabrics' values, none will be able to determine the block design and all the hard work of matching points and seams will be lost in a blur of colours, much like a variegated afghan.

Value is so very subjective. It just depends on the fabric it is playing with.

A single fabric can be light in one block,

medium in a second block

and the dark in a third.

It is helpful to find the medium first. Determine the light and the dark and then fill in the gaps.

Everyone got a medium grey fabric to use as a reference point. Solids or near solids are much easier to place in a line when teaching the eye to discern subtleties.

The colour itself is a distraction so there are ways to eliminate colour. A red coloured piece of cellophane, plastic or glass can do this. Hold the cellophane to the eye and gaze at the fabrics from about 12 inches away. This can be very surprising sometimes.

Photocopying the fabrics on the black and white setting gives a permanent reference. A camera on the black and white setting also is beneficial.

A trip to a paint stores can provide the most useful tool. Find a paint card that has white to black. This is a professional gradient. It is quite helpful for getting a good range of lights, mediums and darks.

For me at least, value is challenging but the more I do the better I get at it.

The shape of colour

The second colour class has been and gone. After I got everybody to make their very own colour wheel based on the common clock face we were ready to talk about colour families.

Colour wheels are readily available at art stores and even fabric shops. I do recommend making your own because it reveals what you have in your stash and helps notice subtle differences. The commercial ones can sometimes be intimidating/confusing with all the extras.

This wheel has cut outs for helping identify the fabric colour.

This is the back side of the artist's colour wheel which has two layers and can be rotated.

Both wheels show the shapes that help chose colour combinations.

If you put your finger on any single colour you have an individual. By using every tint, shade, bright, dull, light, medium, dark, patterned or solid fabric in your stash you will create a monochromatic quilt. Easy Peasy! But if you want to expand from single to couple, you need to find a partner.

A partner can be the next door neighbour or the guy across the street. Very often we pick opposites. The key to a successful relationship with opposites is one needs to be noisier/bossier/smarter/ etc. So the key in quilts with two colours is in the amounts of each you use. Red and green are opposites but even flowers know to have long stems, leaves and even thorns to balance that deep red rose.

Then the kids start coming!

If you married the guy next door the kids are probably similar. If you married out of the neighbourhood the kids are going to relate to those differences in exciting ways.

Shapes can give visual clues just like photograph albums reveal familiar family characteristics.

The semi circle shows colours that touch one to the other. These are analogous colour schemes and are fairly soothing. The kids fall somewhere between the parents who can be at each end. This can be a family of 3 or 10! A complete circle would be polychromatic.

Often children are different from their parents. This would be represented with a triangle. The triangle can be equal sides or 2 sides equal. This is a triadic colour scheme.

If the family is our four and no more then it is a tetra. A square or rectangle will touch the four key members.

And then of course are all the other variations that are found in families who do family planning. A coloured pencil and a blank colour wheel and you can plan the perfect family. Of course the first colicky kiddie and then gramma comes to stay! LOL

When making your own colour wheel place the red, yellow, and blue colours first. Then add orange, green and purple next. This will make finding those remaining, inbetween colours much easier.

Disclaimer! I am no expert on colour but because I have found it quite fascinating and luv to have pleasing arrangements and examples in my home, I have spent lots of time reading, analyzing, and studying. I hope this is helpful to those who also want to understand colour. If someone further along this fascinating road has something more to share or correct I hope they'll have the freedom to do that.

Next class is my Achilles heel. Value!