Choosing The Right Fabric Colors For Your Quilt

One of the first steps in creating a handmade heirloom quilt is choosing the fabric. This beginning step can make a huge difference in the end product that you create. If the color scheme is wrong you can end up with a quilt that isn't so nice to look at in many cases. The exception there, of course, would be scrappy quilts where you can use any and every piece of fabric you can find.

So, let's talk about color scheming your fabric for a nice color coordinated quilt. The easiest way to figure out your best choice for fabric colors is to grab a color wheel. That simple little tool can save you a lot of headache in fabric selection. For a two color quilt, you just choose two colors that are across from each other and you're all set. Easy as pie!

When you get into three and four color combination designs it gets a little more difficult to stick to the right colors, and you want to be aware of tones and shades as well. The three primary colors, red, yellow and blue, form a triad. When using four colors, look for a tetrad, which is two complementary colors and two colors evenly spaced from one of the complementary colors.

** A fun little quilter's side tip: Grab the paint sample strips at the paint store where they have color sets. Those are a great little tool for planning out quilt project colors and they're already prematched, you just have to find fabrics that are similar then start cutting and sewing.

Other things you might want to consider when you're planning out a new quilt project is where the quilt will go. If it's a gift you may wish to choose shades of the recipient's favorite color as the main color in the quilt design. You might decide to match a quilt's colors to the theme of a room that it will be displayed in.

If you're still not sure what colors you want to use for your quilt project you can always pick up a pattern suggestion and follow it specifically. Another fun option is to put together a scrappy quilt, like we mentioned earlier, where you put together a quilt using scraps of many different kinds of fabric and they really aren't even supposed to match.

Whatever you do, have fun and enjoy your quilting project!

By: Paul K. Carder

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Learn more about how to get started quilting at www.squidoo.com/beginnerquilting For some quilting and patchwork project ideas check out the Encyclopedia of Quilting and Patchwork Techniques for fantastic ideas and detailed how to sections on various techniques.