A Little Story About Colors

A little story about colors. I like tone on tone fabrics. They are “easy” for me. Uncomplicated. When I started quilting I needed (not wanted, needed) every fabric to be matchy, matchy. I cried (seriously, tears in public) when colors didn’t match quite the way I wanted them to.

I’m growing. I’m getting better at using fabrics that have more one color.

I found this fabric at my local quilt shop. And thought it was stunning. I wanted to make a green and pink baby girl quilt and I thought that this

would pair nicely with the pink and green diamonds. When I got home and started pulling pinks and greens from my stash, I noticed the teals and blues in the diamond fabric. I seriously hadn’t even noticed the presence of a third color!

I added these blue and green butterflies and dragonflies

and then this lighter teal polka dot to mellow out what was rapidly becoming a very bright quilt.

When I first started quilting, in addition to needing just-perfect colors and prints, I couldn’t place two fabrics next to each other if they didn’t complement each other. More tears!

Mixing pinks and greens is within my comfort zone. Mixing lime green with any other color is not.

This block

is made up of two colors that looked hideous together when not yet sewn into a block. So did this color combo.

But in this pattern, in this block, and with all the other pinks, greens, teals and whites, they work.

They may not match. But contrast is good. Contrast can complement. That’s a tough lesson for me to learn.

Did I make a quilt where every color combination caused heart palpitations to put together? Of course not!

There is also this block

and this block.

Put all together,

this quilt is stunning. I don’t even see the fabrics that I didn’t like together in the first place. Because. They. Work.

These colors THRIVE together. My (very wise) mom who taught me to quilt tried to teach me this years ago. Colors can pop. Colors can contrast. Colors can bring the whole quilt to life. I’ve finally learned. I’m growing.

One of my goals {link} this year is to improve my use of color. If I can do this before I made that goal, I’m excited to see what I can create by loosening that matchy matchy, type A personality just a little bit more.

And green zig zags? Perfect for binding!

This pattern works well in lots of other color combinations too!

Here is a black, red and green combo. It wasn’t meant to be a Christmas quilt, I was just pulling the colors from a floral paisley border, but it definitely turned out a little Christmasy.