How to Use the Color Wheel for Perfect Fabric Choices

Learn How to Hit Color Home Runs Time After Time!

Have you ever selected colors for a quilt only to be disappointed in them once the quilt was done? Or, do you find yourself copying quilts you like so you don’t need to “invent” color combinations?

There’s nothing wrong with copying color combinations, of course (even the best quilters do it). But a bit of solid color theory can go a long way toward helping you branch out and create your own stunning color combinations.

That’s where the color wheel comes in. It’s natural to look at a color wheel and wonder how it relates to fabric and quilts. After all, prints are generally made up of several colors.

The key there is to step back, squint, and determine the overall color. That’s easiest to do with small prints, but even large-scale prints tend to have a predominant color.

But then what? In the following video, Janice Ingle provides an excellent overview of the color wheel and how it relates to fabric and quilts. You’ll learn about hues, tints, tones, and shades, as well as common approaches to combining color.

In the process, you’ll learn why some fabric choices create chaos in a quilt, while other choices create a masterpiece. You’re likely to return to this excellent video again and again to absorb all that it has to offer.

You’ll also want a color wheel of your own to put what Janice teaches into practice. Click here for the color wheel used in the video (the picture is washed out but it’s the same color wheel). Or print a free color wheel here from Love Patchwork and Quilting (the site is no longer available but the instructions are here). We like having both as the first is more comprehensive while the second has windows to place on fabric at the store.

Click here to watch the video at YouTube if it doesn’t play on your device.