Perfect color every time, travel-size!
Posted by Joen Wolfrom on Jun 21st 2021
Time flies when you are having fun------AND I’ve had so much fun while making quilts these past fifty years!
I started sewing classes when in the third grade, and although I never thought of myself as being a particularly good seamstress, I did make most of my clothes as a young adult. After taking my first session of 12 quilting classes in the early ‘70s, I was hooked. No more clothes sewing for me.
I am in my 1970s makeshift studio (below), which was simply a small area of our kids’ playroom. Nevertheless, I was a happy quilter with my long table, trusty old Bernina, an overhead light, fabric in bins under the table, and a small bank of drawers holding my quilting tools and supplies: threads, needles, thimbles, scissors, pins, graph paper, ruler, tracing paper, and cardboard for templates. There were no rotary cutters, cutting boards, plastic templates, color tools, color wheels, etc. This was my hangout until 1990 when my daughter’s bedroom became my studio.
I constantly stumbled with color when making my early quilts. I loved color, but I didn’t know how to use it. Finally I dared myself to take a painting class. I hadn’t had a paint brush in my hand since grade school, so I enrolled with great anguish. I spent the entire quarter mixing paints, learning how to create different colors, and working with value, tonality, and color plans. I painted my own working color wheel. These experiences helped me see fabric as if it were paint.
This class led me to my next realization. I didn’t want to copy other people’s quilts. I wanted to make my own choices—and learn from my own mistakes. With much trepidation and my painted color wheel before me, I began my quilting journey. Years have now passed. My much-used painted color wheel has retired, replaced by the two-sided Essential Color Wheel Companion (see below).
I hope you, too, use a color wheel when selecting the colors for your quilt projects. For color accuracy, be sure to use a color wheel with the primary colors of yellow, cyan (turquoise), and magenta—like your printers’ ink.
The back of this color wheel shows the color partners in the major color plans: analogous, complementary, split-complementary, and triadic.
Using a color wheel is easy. For example, the best partners in a two-color quilt are complements— colors lying opposite each other on the wheel. In this two-color complementary quilt, blue-violet and golden-yellow lie opposite each other. They are a perfect match.
A color wheel can keep us on the right track. For instance, I had planned to use the colors on the right side of the color wheel for this rail fence quilt, moving from yellow to violet. As I worked, I felt my plan too serene for what I had envisioned. I then used the wheel to help me figure out how to seamlessly connect the added warm colors to the cool ones.
Trip around the World, a historic pattern, allows for fun color play. I used analogous hues from the right side of the wheel for this king bed quilt.
I like making new quilt designs by combining historic quilt patterns. Here I combined two historic nine-patch patterns, Storm at Sea and Summer Winds. As I pulled fabrics from my stash, my trusty color wheel was before me, keeping me aware that I should only pull fabrics that included hues between yellow-green and purple.
Wanting to add a bit of drama to this project, I chose analogous colors moving from yellow to violet on the left side of the color wheel.
A scene rarely needs a wheel to select fabrics for sky, ground, or water. However, other details may need a color-wheel reference. Here I used the color wheel for the analogous border.
Recently my buddy Alex Anderson asked if I would make her a small, simple color wheel that she could throw in her purse to take to classes, retreats, or stores. I made her a 5” wheel with twelve basic colors—a wheel that’s so simple and easy to use. She loves it! C&T Publishing asked if I could design a similar one for them. Well, yes!!! What fun I had creating this little Take-Along Mini Color Wheel. I love this wheel’s simplicity and size. I can hardly wait to have my own copy of this little wheel!!!
This wheel’s back shows each color’s color-plan partners.
Whether you are a color guru, a novice, or you fall somewhere between these two spectrum points, I hope you find this little color wheel a perfect partner for making color choices for quilts, your home, your garden, or your clothing. Enjoy!
Cheers,
Joen
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