Monochromatic  This color scheme is one where colors in the same family are used. The trick to making this work well is the use of lights, mediums and darks of a color as well as different size prints.
	Focus Print  This is one of my favorite methods for choosing fabrics. I pick one large print with several colors in it. I then pick other fabrics using the colors in my focus print as a guide.
	Historical Reproduction  This can be achieved in a couple of ways. You can either use some of the wonderful reproduction fabrics on the market or you can achieve a period look by using color combinations popular in a certain era.
	Holiday  Choosing fabrics for holiday theme quilts is as easy as red, green and gold for Christmas, red, white, and blue for the 4th of July, fall colors of greens, browns, rusts for Thanksgiving, and pastels colors for Easter.
	Scrap Look  Scrap quilt are simply done by the use of LOTS of different prints. In scrap quilts the more different fabrics the better.

 

One more area I think is important when choosing you fabrics for a quilt is the use of warm or cool colors. Warm colors would include, reds, yellows, oranges, and rusts. Cool colors would include blues, greens, and lavenders. Cool colors tend to be relaxing colors. Warm colors tend to stimulate and excite. As a general rule warm colors tend to advance while cool colors recede.   Using both warm and cool colors in your quilt will add movement and excitement to your quilt. I feel the best approach is to use the majority of fabrics say in cool colors then add a little of a warm color, or the other way around. The example left shows a block first done all in cool colors of green and blue. The second example shows how adding just a little warm color to the center heart in this case yellow, can add sparkle to the block.

 

© Copyright 1997 Graham Enterprises