Sunday Stash #249 – Bringing Colour Back

So the last few weeks have been a hot mess for Sunday Stash! Let’s just blame it on the boogie and forgive and forget. To that end, let’s look at pretty fabrics, shall we? Continuing on with the US trip Magic Suitcase gallery tour that began last October (Really? Really.), today lands us back at A&E Fabrics for a big splash of colour. I use colour a lot in my quilts, and I’m certainly not afraid of going big, bright and bold.

There is a risk with utilising such loud colours though. Too much, and it can be quite garish, immature, or a whole lot of I-have-no-idea-what-I’m-doing. So unless you are going for absolute maximalism (which can be fabulous, but another story for another time) choose some neutrals to balance out those bold colour choices. If you take a page from my book, chapter twenty-three, neutrals aren’t always members of the brown, black, white and grey families. When I eventually use this print, ColorWorks Concepts by Deborah Edwards for Northcott, I’m gonna throw some Kona with it that still has intense value and colour. However, the complete lack of pattern gives some breathing room. I mean, if I take your breath away, I need to make sure I give it back!

You’ll often find that fabric designers do all the work for you. In the diamond fabric above, Florabelle by Joel Dewberry, those bright red and pinks are calmed down by the addition of a ring of mint. Likewise, Lavish by Katarina Roccella, the bright teals are set against a navy background. Finally, we all know yellow is bright bright bright, but scattering a whole range of neutrals with it as is done here with AvantGarde by Katarina Rocella, brings it back from the edge. When trying to figure out colour schemes for your next quilt, don’t be afraid to borrow the tricks that the professionals are using in their fabrics. Value play, a complimentary colour scheme, and alternative neutrals are a few techniques that can be employed successfully in a quilt.

Probably my favourite way to use colour though is combining tone on tone patterns. Using lots of similarly toned fabrics with subtle shifts in hue and value create a richer experience. Not only are there more visual motifs to explore, the colour palette becomes imbued with depth and complexity. The fabrics shown above: Eerie by Basic Grey, JuneBee for Ink & Arrow, and Tula Pink (I think? Collection? Glitterati help me out!) all have quite different themes, but they could nearly be used interchangeably in your colour palette. Why limit yourself to one, use all three!

So that’s my quick and easy Sunday Stash schoolhouse for this week. If you’ve ever been afraid of using some bold colours, now is your chance to get your technicolour groove on! Pretty soon disco balls will be dropping from your sewing room! Hit me up if you have any questions as I never shy away from a bit of colourful talk!

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