Colour Confidence in Quilting

I wanted to write a post about colour for my MakeClub Bee-ers and Online Bee'ers alike, as it's the area in quilting that holds the most fear for the most people. It is the big stumbling block that stops so many people taking that leap from the big group of people who have 'always wanted to make a quilt' into those who do make quilts and LOVE IT! Why stand on the yearning wishing side for another minute when you could be having so much fun actually doing it over this side???

There is such a mythology around 'being good at colour'. I hear so often the following; 'I'm no good at choosing colours, i don't know what 'goes', what if i choose the 'wrong' colours?'

You really shouldn't waste time worrying about it because;

1. You are good at choosing colours!

2. You can't go wrong

3. If you're nervous, cheat and copy, it's legitimately called inspiration!

You see, I think that everyone has a built in colour guide, but it's set to their own frequency. We all have that 'eeww' moment when we feel that something doesn't 'go'. Its the same impulse that makes us like the taste of some things and not of others. We don't agonise and doubt our food taste so why our visual taste? As long as you're not going eeeww at your own quilt then that's all that matters!


My top tips:
1. Go with what you know you like for your first quilt. Pick colours that you feel comfortable with and you genuinely like, it will make the process less fraught with self doubt.

2. If you still don't know what you like, then look about your home and pick out items you like and use them as a colour guide. Use clothes, cushions, pictures, wherever you find pattern and colour that you like. I like to use skirts; Kids storybooks are a really rich source of colour combostea towels are an unexpected source of good colours too!


3. Go to a good greetings card shop and buy a card that you love. Then pick apart the colours and match your fabrics to them. Here is a card I like and here is a colour scheme matched to it, see how it works? Simple? 4. Lastly the selvage cheat. If you find a fabric you love that has lots of colours within in, then look at the selvage at the side. Each of those little dots is giving you a clue to what colours will look great with your print. If you take the little spots to your fabric store and just match the dots you will have a beautiful quilt! I promise it really can be that easy.



So if you are planning on making your first quilt, or following our Newbie Quilters Bee Along start choosing some fabrics and dreaming about that first quilt colour combo with confidence!

Quilting Bee - Preparing your Bits and Bobs

Hello!

I got a bit waylaid by a tele marathon yesterday as our election results played out so - a day late - here is Installment One of our MakeClub Quilting Bee.

Now first things first, you need to go and get a cup of tea and a slice of cake, or at least a choccie biscuit or somesuch as MakeClub is very fond of getting the background conditions right before strenuous crafting begins!

This Bee is a little program I am putting together for my Club, but as I know many of my readers are new or almost quilters, I thought I'd share my instructions here too if you would like to join us too?

The most important thing that I wanted to show my MakeClub Bee-ers is that quilting need not be complicated, or fiddly, or any kind of stress. It can be done with the bare minimum of equipment ( needle, cotton, scraps) and with basic skills (sew in a straightish line? you're in!)., you don't need lots of space or lots of time. This is a craft that has its roots in poverty and hardship, done by women in the cracks of time and space in their lives, built around cramped living conditions and labour intensive lives. If women could make beautiful quilts in wagons on the American prairie, or in squalid dark miners cottages in County Durham or Wales, then I'm pretty sure we'll all manage! In a very busy and complicated age, quilting offers a simple pleasure.

Now having said that I am now going to write a bossy list!

We will make 9 blocks (12" x 12") over 5 or so months which can be made up into a quilt approx 1m20cm x 1m20cm (47" x 47").

Each month the block that we make will introduce a new skill so that by the end of the 5 months although you will have made 9 blocks, you could confidently make hundreds of others , the principles are transferable.

This quilt can be made completely by hand, and you don't need lots of whizzy equipment.

To participate you need 8 - 14 different, but co-ordinating cotton fabrics to make approx 2.5m in total and approx 1m of a neutral background fabric that works with all of your choices. This may or may not be a plain solid colour, but should definitely work as a background for your other colour choices. These amounts are approximate, you will cut your cloth to suit your means as you go along, but you should have more than enough with these amounts.

You will also need a neutral cotton thread to match your colour choices, sewing needles (longer and thinner is better but just make do with whatever you have to hand, its not at all critical).

If you have a rotary cutter and mat it will make things quicker, but it's not critical, a little pair of sharp scissors will do just as well.

Next week I will talk about fabric choices. It's one the most scary bits of making a quilt when you start out, I know that the fear of making a 'wrong' decision was enough to stop me making my first quilt for months! I promise my Painting By Numbers approach will take the fear away!

MakeClub Bee

Last night was my MakeClub meeting. You may remember that MakeClub is my lovely local group of mums from school who cooked up the idea for a group last summer at a rainswept sports day (wishing we were somewhere warm and knitting!). Since then we have learnt to knit, crochet, quilt, embroider etc etc together, encouraging each other, making lots of lovely friends along the way. I love MakeClub. Its food for the soul.

Last night we kicked off a Quilting Bee. We are going back to basics and making a modern take on a sampler quilt. Making the same block together each month, but in our own fabric palettes. Each block will demonstrate a new skill, so that by the end of 9 blocks you could tackle pretty much any other block with confidence. We all plan to make 10 blocks each then make the orphan blocks into a charity quilt. I am so excited about it all. There is so much energy and enthusiasm about learning a new skill, and my favourite thing is helping people to make their first quilt. They are always hooked!

I know that lots of my blog readers are teetering on the brink of making their first quilt. I thought I would open up our Bee online, so if you would like to quilt along with us month by month I will post the block instructions online as we make them. If you would like to join us, this month you need to get your fabrics planned. I will post tomorrow with the info on what you need to have in order to join in. Happy Quilting!