bLENDERS - bRIGHTS HOW TO USE THEM

[Linda H.]

I love the brights / blender type fabrics... but I have not been able to use them successfully. My quilts look a little off .... I would like to start a discussion on Brights and Blenders by those who use them sucessfully to make interesting quilts. I find I am enjoying the



What lights do you put with them since they tend to be medium and dark in color?

What darks and neutrals would be best used with brights? blenders?
cream, off white, ecru?
black? Navy?


Any other helpful hint on using these types of fabrics?

[Keith D.]

I love brights and use them a lot...

I try to think about two things: proportion and shading. Proportion meaning that I think it's much harder to make a successful quilt when everything is bright. Maybe only 30% to 40% should be bright and the rest should be toned down a bit. That's still a bright quilt!

This is similar to making a successful pastel quilt - not everything should be soft and light - most often a pastel quilt needs some darker fabrics too (not all the way to black, just darker), even if they make up only 10% of the quilt - to really be a stand-out.

And then shading - I don't think it's easy to make a mostly toned-down quilt and then BAM add brights. it's easier if you add several fabrics that progressively get more bright until you get to your brights.

About backgrounds, I've used blacks, grays, tans, browns, and off-whites. I think blacks make your brights 'pop' more and tans and off-whites tone them down a bit. Grays are really fun. Blue-y cool grays make your hot brights pop more, and warmer grays tend to make your cooler brights pop. Your choice - you're in control!

I guess, Lady, if you wanted short, definitive answers, maybe I'm not the one... Opps, that didn't quite sound right to call you 'Lady'. =) I'm so sorry Anna! Anyway, I hope this helps, Anna!

[Keith D.]

And about blenders: I think often they do this for you - they shade from one color to the next, or from darker to lighter, or from lower intensity to higher, from warm to cool. They just do it in one fabric instead of us getting to play with 6 or 10 or 60 fabrics to do the same thing... =)

I use them often for color scheme inspiration and they don't always end up in the same quilt.

[Keith D.]

I, just about, always put black as a my brights.

[Keith D.]

Ya know...this may sound naive or overly simple, but...I just go for colors I like and throw some more colors at it till I like the combination. I don't stress the colorwheel, or rules and guidelines. I just go for what I like.

[Keith D.]

I'm with Sherry, when figuring out the colours for a quilt, I pile the fabrics I think I'm going to use on the table (in such a way that I can see them all). Keep pulling out fabrics that might work and eventually edit until I have what I need to. Sometimes I even end up using the fabric that I thought I was going to. :lol: Somehow, or another my quilts always end up with purple in them somewhere, even the one I am working on for my brother. ops:

Jean in Windsor, ON where we are actually getting snow

[Lorena M.]

Blenders, can't say I know exactly which fabric you are talking about but the info Keith gave is great. It's helpful for lots of the fabrics I want to use but haven't ventured into. Thanks, Keith.

I also use the method of just putting fabrics together to see if they work, but sometimes I think Keith's ideas are what I need to make that "wow" in my quilts. Great info

[Keith D.]

I'm here to please... =) And I've got 10 students in my color class on Monday - it's nice to have that little lift to help me be 'on' to teach my favorite class. Thanks for the kind words, Rena!