How To Choose Colours For A Quilt
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For many years I have had very excited people coming into the shop wanting to start
their first patchwork project.
Most people have an idea of a certain colour scheme but really don't know how to start.
There are hundreds of books on the subject and in many ways there is so much information
that it is difficult to choose.
In my opinion the big mistake is to look at hundreds of fabrics and pick out about 10 that
you really like. Patchwork is about the relationship of one fabric to another and when a
few fabrics are put together they need to relate. 10 fabrics you really like will probably
have nothing in common with each other.
Of course there are many experts who make the most wonderful quilts and everyone
eventually develops their own method of selecting fabrics.
I find the easiest way to start is to select your main fabric or 'anchor' fabric as I call
it. This should be a design you like because the other fabrics must be chosen from what
this fabric suggest to you. This 'anchor' fabric will probably leap out at you as
something that catches your eye. Look into the design and see what colours are within it
that may be used as co-ordinates.
Next take some of these co-ordinates and see what they would look like around the main
'anchor' fabric. Remember you normally want some variation in depth of colour so a medium
coloured 'anchor' fabric will benefit from some lighter and darker co-ordinates. This
transforms a flat combination into a selection with a bit of life to it.
In our 9 Fat Quarter Collection packs we have tried to do this to give a balanced
selection of colour depth and co-ordination.
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