Color Theory, the Series! Part VII: Making Color Work for You

Choosing color for your quilt doesn't have to be a scary or overwhelming experience.  Over the last six editions of this series you've learned the basics of Color Theory and have some good foundational tools in your "Color Choice Toolbelt." Thankfully, fabrics are pretty easy to audition and swap in and out as you want to!  

A good rule of thumb is to start with a focus fabric that will be prevalent in your quilt, from which you can choose accompanying colors. Sometimes it's obvious which colors you want to put with your piece...but sometimes? Not. So. Much. 

Look, I'm not the Queen of the World (yet...) so I can't tell you how to manage your quilt making process but I can offer some things to consider.  These are some broad brushstrokes, so keep in mind there are always going to be exceptions, but these are some good places to start:

• What kind of fibers will you be working with - cotton, batiks, flannel, wool, silk, wovens, etc? This is important to consider since some fibers absorb dye differently. Batiks and cottons tend to be more saturated with dye, and so they run the gamut from pastel to bright to dark with ease. Flannels can be bright, but more often than not you'll find darker, more muted colors or very soft pastel colors. Wool comes in all colors, but darker and brighter colors are more prevalent. Wovens tend to be more neutral and tonal. 
• What do you want to achieve with your quilt? That will help determine your color selection. If you are looking to make a comfort quilt, you might shy away from the brighter, more intense colors and opt for something softer and more soothing. If you are looking to do something more contemporary, you might look more into the brights and tonals. If reproduction is your thing, you might seek out more shades and tones. Pastels are more suited for shabby chic, spring and baby quilts, so you might consider pastels for something like that. 
• THERE IS NO HARD AND FAST RULE AS TO WHAT IS THE "RIGHT" COLOR FOR THE JOB. I cannot emphasize that enough! I follow a lot of quilt groups online and there are a whole lot of opinions about what the right and wrong color and style choices are, so mine is just one more opinion in the sea of opinions...but there are no Quilt Police that will haul you away for doing a baby quilt in tonals, a reproduction in pastels or a traditional quilt in brights. Consider who you're making it for, and what they like and what purpose it will serve. Everyone has a different eye and likes different things so COLOR CHOICE IS SUBJECTIVE. Color Theory helps you get to the place you want to go with your color choices.  

As we talked about early in the series, colors evoke certain feelings and ideas. Google search "color meanings" and you'll find all kinds of things!

Note, we at The Cotton Patch are not psychologists...and not totally sure this is actual psychology.  But, you get the idea.  Colors evoke feelings and meaning universally (though the meanings may vary by time period and by culture...you get the point.)

Here's a high level breakdown of colors and the effects they achieve on their own. When you combine them in certain ways, they bounce off each other differently:

• Red: An active color, red will pop out from darker, cooler colors. It has warm intensity.
• Orange: Also an active color, it pops from darker, cooler colors as well. It is bright and gives quilts an energetic feel.  In its shades, rust lends a quilt a lot of warm richness. 
• Yellow: An active and intense color that will pop against any other, even warm colors. It is warm, crisp, and vibrant. The eye cannot focus on yellow for very long, so placing pops of yellow in a quilt forces the eye to move around the piece. It also gives quilts a cheerful and sunny feel.
• Green: This is generally a more passive color that retreats when placed with warmer colors, but if the hue/tint is bright enough, it can pop depending on what it is placed with. Green helps give quilts a fresh, clean, and calm ambiance.
• Blue: Unless it is a very bright blue paired with other cool colors, blue is a passive color that retreats in the background. It will give your quilt a tranquil feel no matter the shade, and in the tonals it grounds the piece. Blue can be vibrant and energetic, but overall it is a calming influence.
• Purple: As with green, the intensity and brightness of purple can change whether it pops or retreats. Generally though, it retreats and gives the quilt a fresh, feminine, or rich and regal feel. 
• Neutrals: I'm going to go ahead an use this umbrella term for browns, grays, beiges, taupes, tans, creams and everything in between. Neutrals tend to recede because they are mostly paired with a more dominant color.  They give quilts a calm, earthy, simple beauty and a place for the eye to rest.
• White: White quickly dominates a quilt, and can overpower the colors it's paired with. Colors appear less bright with white with them, but also appear fresher and clearer than with black, as seen below:

• Black: As seen above, black makes other colors, including white, pop. Because of its darkness, it dominates a quilt visually while still letting other fabrics be the stars.  Depending on what you choose to use as a background, the color you use on top of it may look different because of how the two colors play together based on where they are located on the color wheel. For example:

A few other Color Theory Pro Tips:

• Color is important, but value is even moreso. You can have all of the range of color in the world but still have a flat quilt if it's all the same tint/tone/shade. Quilts need light, medium and dark fabrics to create depth. that doesn't mean every quilt needs black and white, but in whatever colors you choose, having both ends of the spectrum as well as the mid tone helps create richness, depth and that "Pop Factor" that quilters love.
• Cooler, darker colors tend to recede when places with brighter, warmer colors. If you want a portion of your block to pop, consider using the brighter complement as the focus of that block.
• Monochromatic (using the hue, tints, tones and shades of one color only) quilts are nothing to sneeze at. While only using one color, the value is what makes the quilt so visually impactful.
• Proportion of color and value is what gives your quilt its life - The dominant color is both the color you use the most of, or what your eye is drawn to quickest. Your sub-dominant colors are the colors that take up less area than the dominant color, but play well with the dominant. The accent is the color that takes up the least space, but contrasts the most with the sub-dominant and dominant color(s). Dividing your color choices into those groups can help organize and guide the direction of your quilt. Without stating it outright, most quilt patterns do this for you on the required yardage page
• Super stuck?  This Palette Picker is a great help to illustrate how your colors will interact if you're having a hard time visualizing. It's come in handy for me more than once!

Do you have some of your own helpful tricks and tips to making color work for you? Add them in the comments below!