Special Effects with Color Class

[Margo C.]

Hi Christine! Welcome to the forum!

[Susan B.]

I'm hoping to be brave and mix up my color selections after this series. I printed off all of the printed material already. I like Amish quilts and would like to make some small ones, but I just can't wrap my head around the color selections.

[Margo C.]

For lesson one, I just cut fabric shapes and glued them to the printed pattern.

For the star parts, I cut 4 strips 4-1/2" x 1-3/8" and made a template out of plastic for the shape of the star.



Because we need 4 diamond shapes and 4 reversed diamond shapes, I stacked 4 with right sides up and 4 with right sides down then used the template to cut the angles and get the 8 shapes I needed.



To get the background triangles I cut a 4" x 4" square and cut it in quarters. To get the background corner squares, I cut four 2" x 2" squares.

[Margo C.]

Even using the same color family, careful placement of the values makes a huge difference in how the block appears!

[Lois B.]

What a great way to try these ideas! Thanks, Margo!

[Margo C.]

I'm hoping to be brave and mix up my color selections after this series. I printed off all of the printed material already. I like Amish quilts and would like to make some small ones, but I just can't wrap my head around the color selections.

Susan, for what it's worth, I just took a bundle of coordinated fat quarters that was given to me and sorted the fabrics by VALUE and added a background fabric. If you are having trouble selecting a light, medium and dark fabric from your Amish fabrics, try using a value-finder! I learned a lot by using a Ruby Beholder: http://www.amazon.com/That-Patchwork.../dp/B003KXKI6U

Here is a tutorial showing how it works: http://www.kathleenhuebener.com/blog/behold-the-ruby/

[Margo C.]

I am very interested in this colour class. Just reading a colour theory book, Color Play' by Joen Wolfrom (subtitled 'easy steps to imaginative color in Quilts', which uses the printer's colour wheel of cyan, magenta and yellow instead of blue, red and yellow as the primary colours. The blue-red-yellow one is the primary one we all learn in grade school.

Which one do you use?

[Margo C.]

Hi Margo! Your blocks are the first posted, and they look GREAT! They really show what a difference value makes; one looks very two-dimensional, the other has a strong sense of depth. Thanks for diving right in and for giving viewers a step-by-step demo of making the blocks. Looking forward to seeing how to use color in the later exercises!

[Margo C.]

Hi again, Margo. What I meant to say is that I'm looking forward to seeing how YOU use color in the later exercises. My typing fingers are not yet warmed up

[Margo C.]

Hi again, Margo. What I meant to say is that I'm looking forward to seeing how YOU use color in the later exercises. My typing fingers are not yet warmed up

:lol: That happens to me all the time, Christine! Here's a tip for you...if you need to edit a post in the forum just click on the little "EDIT" box in the upper right corner of the post. If you do it before another post is added (after your error) there won't even be a notation that the post has been edited! Some of mine have several "edits" before I get them the way they should be! You can also "preview" your post before you submit it, but that would take some of the excitement out of it! :lol:

[Margo C.]

Hi Terrie, Thanks for asking about the color wheel. I'm familiar with Joen's books (they're great!) and the Ives color wheel. I use the twelve-hue Prang color wheel (yellow, blue-green, violet, etc.) because it's simple, and I've found it to be easy for students to relate to and use. There are infinite variations of the colors you see on the Prang wheel of course, but it clearly shows the relationships of the colors, which is what it's all about. But I say use the system that works for you and helps you make quilts you love. I talk about the color wheel in Lesson 4, and you can see my fabric wheel in the background of some of the lessons.

[Betty J.]

I am so interested in this class and thank you and TQS for making this available. I hope to manage to make the exercises, but mainly the explanations are so clear that even if I don't manage the time for that I find it enormously interesting so far. I mostly make art quilts using a lot of appliques and background piecing, and I can look at some of my older quilts especially and see where they needed improvement in the values. Very helpful. Thanks! Looking forward to the remaining segments.

[Betty J.]

Thanks, Betty Jo, for your comments. And you are so right—once quilters see how critical value is to the look of the finished quilt, they evaluate fabrics in terms of lightness and darkness before they cut and sew. It wasn't until after my first color for quilters book came out in 1997 that I really got that lesson! Hope you have a little time to do some of the exercises. Fortunately, they are not "due" by any deadline

[Norma H.]

This is a very interesting class. I will follow but not make the exercises now. I always play with values and use my digital camera a lot to examine my designs. On this quilt from my profile I really played in the border that consists of stars. You will not see everyone at first glance.
Here is a link: /

[Norma H.]

HI Norma. Thanks for your post. Your quilt is wonderful! Love the movement in the central area. You are so right about the stars; some look light 8-pointed stars, while others remind me of whirligigs, thanks to the use of value. I use my camera too. If I'm working with something small, a few blocks, I'll look at them in a mirror. Any "weakness" becomes more obvious when I see the block or blocks in a mirror. Better to see it then than when the blocks are joined!