Snuggles Quilts

Snuggles Quilts

MENU

Fabric Choice – The Importance of Color and Print Combos

Last week’s post covering secondary design focused mostly on design of the blocks and how they play off each other. This week, I will cover fabric choice. There are a lot of things that go into choosing fabrics. Color, prints, contrast, etc. There will be some color theory covered and then I will give tips on choosing fabrics based on the theory and how the color and prints play together. Let’s get started!

Color Theory

First, a bit of the basics and then I’ll provide examples.

To understand color better, start with the most basic term:  hue. That is the base color. Blue, yellow, green, etc. are color hues. Value is the lightness or darkness of a hue. Here are three terms to know when referring to value:

  • Shade is taking the hue, for instance blue, and adding black to it to make it darker, for a dark blue.
  • Tint is taking the blue hue and adding white to make it lighter, making a light blue.
  • Tone is adding grey to a hue to make it less intense. Most colors around us in the world are tones of a pure color.

If you hear a quilter talk about “chroma” or “intensity” they are referring to the purity of a color, or how close it is to the pure hue. Here’s an example:

The blue fabric on the left is closest to the true hue whereas the blue fabric on the right is a shade of the true hue (black added). So, the intensity or chroma is higher in the fabric on the left. That fabric will be more noticeable in a quilt than the one on the right. 

Contrast and Combining Colors

Contrast Tip #1: One way to achieve some contrast is by considering the value, tint, shade, etc. of the each color you choose. Here’s an example using some of my fabrics of the same color family:

The green fabric in the center is the closest to the true hue. On the left, is the tint of the true green and on the right is a shade. Putting these three fabrics into a block would create an interesting contrast within a color. 

Contrast Tip #2: Lets apply the above while using three different colors:

My “tint” color is the blue fabric and my “shade” color is the purple fabric. Switching out the two greens for the blue and purple will create a different kind of contrast than with the three greens.

Contrast Tip #3: Now let’s up our game here by adding in the concept of “warm” and “cool” colors.  Cool colors are generally the purples, blues and greens where warm colors are generally oranges, reds and yellows. Mixing warm and cool colors is another way to create contrast. Here’s an example, side by side, showing the difference between a set of fabrics with all cool colors and one with a mixture:

The stack on the left is all cool color fabrics. There is contrast simply by using different tints and shades. The stack on the right is a mixture of warm and cool colors. The contrast is chiefly achieved by that alone, but you can also use different tints and shades to change the look.

I took the color set on the right from the previous photo and made two stacks that alternate between cool and warm colors of different tints or shades.

Creating Contrast Using the Color Wheel

Understanding the color wheel will also help you in choosing fabrics to make your quilt interesting. The wheel will also help you determine what colors are warm or cool and also what colors contrast highly or not with each other.

Here’s my color wheel:

The easiest thing to remember is the primary colors: yellow, red, and blue. These are the three basic colors that can be combined to make the other colors shown on the wheel above.

Secondary colors are those that are made by combining two primary colors equally. For example, yellow and red make orange.

Finally, tertiary or intermediate colors are made by combining a primary and a secondary color. For example, combine red and orange to make a red/orange color.

The color wheel comes in handy when you are interested in creating contrast as well. Colors located across from each other on the wheel have high contrast. That’s referred to as complementary. Using those in a quilt will create a design that is vibrant because of the contrast. Colors near each other on the wheel are considered analogous colors and will have less contrast. The quilt made from these will be “quieter”. Although you can create a little contrast by mixing in hues of different shades, tints and tones.

This photo demonstrates that:

The two fabrics on the left are far apart on the wheel, where the two on the right are closer. There is some contrast in the one on the right, but there is more contrast in the one on the left.

How Do Prints Fit In?

The size of prints in a fabric will make a difference in the look of a block or quilt top. I like to plan where to place different size prints in a quilt based on if I want them to attract more attention to that area or fade in the background. Bolder, larger prints are more noticeable while smaller, subtle prints are less so and can even read as solid if they are really tiny.

Here are three of the same color fabrics with different size prints:

The fabric on top is an example of a fabric with a small, dense print. It would read more as a solid than the other two. The print in the middle is more noticeable because its bigger and spread out more. Finally, the print on the bottom is a type that is considered directional since the stripes only go in one direction on the fabric. 

Another example of how print scale makes a difference in the photo below. The two fabrics on the left have prints about the same size, but the print on the fabric in the center appears more noticeable because of how it’s dispersed. Both fabrics though could be used with other prints and not take too much attention away. 

I would probably use the fabric on the right as a border fabric because of the bold print or, if I used it in a block,  I would make sure to pair it with a fabric that did not have a large print (see below).

Print Tip #1: Choose one fabric to be the standout. If there are too many prints competing with each other, that could detract from the block’s design.

On the left above, I combined a larger print pink fabric with a smaller more subtle purple print in the smaller inset star. In fact, the purple almost reads solid. The star block on the right is the opposite. The more noticeable print in is used in the smaller star and the green print for the larger star reads more solid. 

Print Tip #2: Venture away from just solid white or tan backgrounds for fun. Consider even a scrappy background with many different printed tans like I did below:

If your quilt calls for 2 yards of a tan print for the background of blocks, consider buying 4 half yards or 8 quarter yards of coordinating tans to make up that 2 yards. Then you can use different backgrounds with the variety of color print pairings for blocks to make a scrappy background.

So that’s it for my thoughts on colors and prints and combining them in blocks for quilts. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

Color Terms and Combining Fabrics

The posts of the last two weeks were all about scrap quilting. Since I received some questions on color prints, choosing fabrics, and combining fabrics, I decided to write a post on color and combining fabrics in quilts. This will come in handy if you are making a “planned” scrap quilt, like I demonstrated last week. So let’s talk color!

Color Basics – Creating Contrast

One of the basic things you want to think about along with color is the contrast between fabrics you choose. Color and contrast actually go hand in hand. If you want your block designs to boldly stand out, you want fabrics that highly contrast with each other. If you want your quilt to read quieter, chose fabrics that have less contrast with each other.

Contrast is achieved by considering the value, tint, shade, etc. of the each color you choose. For example, pink is a tint of red where maroon is a shade of red. This photo below shows that:

To understand color better, here is explanations for those terms above and more. The most basic is hue. That is the base color. Blue, yellow, green, etc. are color hues. Value is the lightness or darkness of a hue. Here are three terms to know when referring to value:

  • Shade is taking the hue, for instance blue, and adding black to it to make it darker, for a dark blue.
  • Tint is taking the blue hue and adding white to make it lighter, making a light blue.
  • Tone is adding grey to a hue to make it less intense. Most colors around us in the world are tones of a pure color.

If you hear a quilter talk about “chroma” or “intensity” they are referring to the purity of a color, or how close it is to the pure hue. Here’s an example:

The blue fabric on the left is closest to the true hue whereas the blue fabric on the right is a shade of the true hue (black added). So, the intensity or chroma is higher in the fabric on the left. That fabric will be more noticeable in a quilt than the one on the right. 

So now you can see that creating contrast is simply using the different values (shade, tint or tone) of a hue to create contrast.

Two other important terms are: warm colors and cool colors. Cool colors are generally the purples, blues and greens where warm colors are generally oranges, reds and yellows. Mixing warm and cool colors is another way to create contrast.

Color Basics – The Color Wheel

Understanding the color wheel will also help you in choosing fabrics. Here’s mine:

The easiest thing to remember is the primary colors: yellow, red, and blue. These are the three basic colors that can be combined to make the other colors shown on the wheel above.

Secondary colors are those that are made by combining two primary colors equally. For example, yellow and red make orange.

Finally, tertiary or intermediate colors are made by combining a primary and a secondary color. For example, combine red and orange to make a red/orange color.

The color wheel comes in handy when you are interested in creating contrast as well. Colors located across from each other on the wheel have high contrast. That’s referred to as complementary. Using those in a quilt will create a design that is vibrant because of the contrast. Colors near each other on the wheel are considered analogous colors and will have less contrast. The quilt made from these will be “quieter”. Although you can create a little contrast by mixing in hues of different shades, tints and tones.

Here’s an example with fabrics:

The stack on the left is made up of fabrics that are complementary and the stack on the right is made up of fabrics that are analogous. Blocks from the stack on the left will be more vibrant than from those on the right.

Here’s another example:

Starting with the fabrics on the left. I used all colors that were analogous. The stack in the center shows how I created a bit of contrast by adding a tinted blue and green in place of the ones in the first stack. Finally, I took out two of the analogous colors and replaced them with complementary and warm fabrics of red and yellow, to create even more contrast.

Combining Fabrics

Tip#1: Background fabrics. The background can play a role in the contrast in your quilt. When choosing a background fabric, consider print size as well as how it will play with your color prints.

 I wanted the design of this quilt on the left (below) to be very subtle and the colors very subdued. Less contrast between the color prints and background. The quilt on the right is a similar pattern with high contrast between the color prints and the lighter background.

Here is an example of how fabric color, a block design, or an appliqué pattern is intensified by simply changing the background fabric from light tan to black.

Tip #2: Prints. Let’s look at some of the blocks from my Scrappy North Stars quilt to see how prints can be mixed and matched for different effects. Here’s the quilt:

Here are two blocks from the quilt:

For the block on the left, I used fabrics with prints about the same size in the block pieces, including the background. For the block on the right, not only did I use a lighter background fabric, I also alternated in print size depending on where the pieces fell in the block. 

Next up is my quilt, Sister’s Reunion:

Here are two blocks from this quilt:

The fabrics in the block on the left both have a larger, busier print than the fabrics in the block on the right. See what a difference prints in fabrics can make? I think the star design in the block on the right stands out more because of the difference.

 I hope you enjoyed this explanation of some color basics and that it will help you on your next fabric shopping trip. Whether you want high or low contrast, you can play with the colors, fabric prints, and background fabrics to achieve the desired look.

Feel free to comment or ask any questions in the comment section below.

Happy Quilting!
Deanne