The Rainbow Connection

I couldn't help myself.  I had to share it.

I love fabric!  I love to walk around the fabric store and just look at all the pretty colors and patterns.  The problem comes when I need to choose fabric for something I'm going to sew.  Sure, I do okay when I just have to pick one fabric and not match it with anything.  That's when I like to be brave and try crazy fabrics with fun patterns.  The problem comes when I have to find multiple fabrics that will go together (and look pretty).  When my mom and I took our first quilting class together the teacher briefly talked about using the color wheel to find fabrics that will match and compliment each other well.  The concept of the color wheel makes sense to me, but putting it into practice is a whole other story. 

These are the fabrics I picked for my first two quilts.  Okay, I didn't really pick them.  I wandered aimlessly through the store until the owners took pity on me and showed me some pretty ones that looked good together and I "picked" those.  :-)  If I had picked on my own I would have some very sad looking quilts. 

I know, I know.  What's with all the blue??  What can I say?  I just like it.  I will try to be more adventurous on the next one.

Since I have decided that I am going to try to sew a lot more now, I decided I should probably try to figure this color wheel thing out. 

This is what I have found so far...  

About.com has a really great explanation of the color wheel and how to use it to choose fabrics for different kinds of quilts.  I won't bore you with all the details. You can go to the link if you are interested. 

It explains:

• Primary Colors (red, yellow, blue)
• Secondary Colors (combining two primary colors together to get green, orange and violet)
• Tertiary Colors (Combining a primary color with a secondary color to get colors like red-orange, blue-green, etc.)
• Different types of fabric choices for quilts
• Monochromatic - quilt with one color in many different shades
• Analogous - quilt with colors that are next to each other on the color wheel
• Complimentary - quilt with colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel

ehow.com explains basically the same thing but it's a little shorter so it's a quick read.  :-)

(It's kind of pretty)

I also found the chapter about the color wheel in Complete Guide to Quilting (Better Homes & Gardens Crafts) really helpful.  It has a lot of big pictures of the color wheel and shows colors of different shades and how they can go together.  This is a good book.  I haven't read the whole thing yet but every time I have looked something up it has been extremely helpful. 

Okay, all this research and the question still remains - do I know how to choose fabric?  I guess We'll find out.  I'll keep you posted on how it goes. 

And, just for funsies, I found this cute little animation about color so I thought I would share it. Enjoy!

Reulf from Charlesque on Vimeo.

I took this picture by my house one day.  Rainbows are so pretty!