please leave me a comment and share how you choose your colors. I would love to have some new inspiration. Hope you have a great Sunday and find some time to sew. Cheery wave! Bev
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Color Choices
In my last few posts, I've asked how you all choose colors for your projects. The number of people who replied was zero. So I'm guessing that is not a real subject of interest to anyone right now but me. I've been trying to break out of the colors I've been using over and over for the last year or so. I still love them but everything looks alike and my stash is starting to have no variety.One of the tools that I used to use all the time is Design Seeds.
If you haven't been to the website, you are missing a real treat.
The photos are absolutely gorgeous and the color palettes taken from them are original and interesting.
The problem is that I can spend hours there. Most of the photos and colors I love are nothing I would ever put together and use if left to my own devices.
Or they are colors I would use but in new combinations.
Sometimes, like the photo of the little lamb, they are colors I won't be making a quilt from but the picture is, after all, a little lamb.
You can find the Design Seeds website HERE. But before you run off to play there,
please leave me a comment and share how you choose your colors. I would love to have some new inspiration. Hope you have a great Sunday and find some time to sew. Cheery wave! Bev
please leave me a comment and share how you choose your colors. I would love to have some new inspiration. Hope you have a great Sunday and find some time to sew. Cheery wave! Bev
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19 comments:
that is one of my favourite sites, check it daily. Great inspiration, always thinking oh, that would make a great quilt.
I just finished a red/white quilt and am currently working on a large applique quilt of flowers using pinks, reds,creams, taupes,and green for stems. Probably have 30+ fabrics in this quilt.
I usually do totally scrappy quilts so both of these are out of my "box".
This won't be much help Bev but I just pick what I think will look good for what I'm making and lately trying to use my stash.
I also use Design Seed. Often times I'll look at fashion sites, at the outfits. Some are obnoxious but others follow a color scheme that's pleasing to the eye. At the same time you get to identify the colors that are "in". I suppose it also depends on who the quilt is for. I'll look at quilt books for classic color combos.
LOL I didn't answer because I pretty much fly by the seat of my pants! :-) Love that site! Another thing to do is choose a fabric you love and pick coordinates by using the color dots on the selvage. Sometimes I don't even use the fabric I love in the quilt, but I've gotten all the other fabrics to blend nicely. ;-) Have a happy day!
I get my ideas for colors from my good friend Beverly! I love your choice of colors always!
Judy
Hi Bev I choose a fabric I love then pull colors from it . Normally anything in the pink purple green range. But latly I have been using bright fabrics like you use in your quilts so it has seen me also use black & white grey orange blue and my loathed color yellow! Sometimes I forget color and use value that makes it note resting.
I like clear colours, some people call them jewel tones, other call them bright pastels. I don't like grey or brown tones in the colours. I can appreciate quilts made from theses palates, but they are not mind.
Lemon yellow, fuchsia pink and tuquoise are the basis of the colour wheel for me. Throw in some lime green, black and white and that is the road I head down.
I love the colours you are doing for your row along, just my pallate.
Hi Bev
I seem to choose colours that I like at the time and will look good in the projecti want to start. I like my colours to match the decor in my house to so that helps with my decision.
The book I used for my pieced blocks is rotary cutting blocks by Judy Hopkins. It has 200 blocks in all different sizes and my camera is a Nikon 3100, its beautiful. Have fun choosing one for you.
Hi! I used to use Design Seeds for selecting a color palette for embroidery projects, but you're right - it's easy to get sucked into it for hours just looking at all of the pretty pictures! Now, I either use a line, or pick a fabric I like, and just "audition" my fabrics next to it until something strikes my fancy.
I guess I am at the "Like what I like" stage. While I know my stash (my wardrobe, my flower garden, my decor) favor the cool serene colors, I do not have a problem with that. Although I will definitely check out Design Seed!
The way I chose colors depends upon what I'm doing. But, no matter what I do, I keep Jinny Beyer's color principles in the back of my mind. They pretty much boil down to 3 principles:
1. shade from one color to the next, through one or more other colors, if necessary
2. Include a deep dark
3. Include an accent
When I made my parent's 50th anniversary quilt, I used blue and brown as my starting point because Mom's favorite color is blue and Dad's is beige (he calls it beege). I offered mom a choice of 2 prints and used that as the starting point. Then I pulled everything from my stash that blended with the print, making sure I included all values. By the time I finished pulling fabric, I had 140 different prints. This was a 25 block quilt so I decided what value would go where in the block. Each block used different colors but the values were consistent between the blocks. The corner triangles in the blocks were fussy cut from a border print to make a kaleidoscope square where they met.
Other times I've done 2 fabric quilts. Or 2 color quilts like indigo and yellow.
My civil war repro quilt had everything in it as long as it was that era. I just paired lights and darks to make the blocks.
I did a jigsaw puzzle quilt from batiks. I figured out how big a square I needed to cut the pieces and cut that size from lots of fabrics. Then I placed them on a design wall to decide which ones to use. No thought at all went into color. Just contrast with the neighbors and balance of light and dark overall.
I love Design Seeds although I haven't used any of them as a palette yet.
Barbara in MD
It depends on the pattern and who the quilt is for. Sometimes I'll have one piece of material I want to use and pick materials that match it, or just depends on the kind of mood I'm in too.
I usually use http://www.colorschemer.com/, but I just found http://www.colourlovers.com.
I tend to find a collection in colors or prints that call my name, then buy a LOT of that collection. I am lousy at doing it w/out direction. I don't trust myself, I guess. I always wonder how people make such lovely quilts by pulling from their stash. I wish I was as brave!
I get a little bit of design seeds every day by subscribing to her in my Google Reader. Usually I choose color and combos I like, but if the project is for a specific person, I try to use colors that person likes.
This is such an awesome idea! I never thought about using this for craft projects.
I am new to your blog but I too am struggling with trying new colour combos. I think I like scrappy so I don't have to choose. I will give this sight a go. Thanks
Carol
crlwilkie@aol.com
Awesome post and great idea to spur some new ideas.
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