![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Cynthias-Quilt.jpg?ssl=1\" "\\"Cynthia's")
<\/a>Cynthia's Quilt - 2000, 90cm x 55cm. Commissioned and owned by Cynthia Harvey Baker of Kojonup Western Australia, this will soon be on its way to Austria, to be exhibited in a collection of Western Australian quilts later this year.<\/p><\/div>\n
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Colour surrounds us, and every day we make choices based on colours, instinctively wanting to make wise choices.\u00a0 As we take clothes from our wardrobes, the weather,\u00a0scheduled activities and even our hormones\u00a0influence colour choices without us thinking of these connections. \u00a0\u00a0At a salad bar,\u00a0the colour of a food is a factor in choice; and\u00a0did you know nutritionists have found that the more colours on your plate the better nutritionally balanced your meal\u2019s likely to be ?<\/p>\n
When young, most of us learn which colours suit our complexions, developing confidence with colour that stays with us for life.\u00a0 However others struggle, saying things like \u201cI\u2019m no good with color\u201d; they pay consultants to coordinate wedding details, decorate their homes, and get their personal colours done.\u00a0 When I was young, all brown clothes made me look \u2018washed out\u2019 or ill. \u00a0Perhaps because of modern fabric dyes and the aging process, today I can wear more browns; \u00a0and as my hair colour changes periodically, that also changes the possibilities!<\/p>\n
I have often claimed that in the world of art quilts and from those who teach within it, there is not nearly enough emphasis on design and color compared to the myriad of technical demonstrations and tutorials in magazines, dvds, books, tv, online and real time courses and classes.\u00a0 Many quilt makers have high skill levels in all the construction techniques required to make wonderful quilts, but can lack ability and\/or confidence developing colour schemes for their projects. \u00a0Collections of new fabrics appear several times a year in coordinated prints and solids to make copying a project from a magazine possible, but without basic knowledge of just how different colours work together, a quilter assembling her own individual color scheme may not even realize when a quilt shop assistant has helped her make \u2018less good\u2019 or even wrong fabric selection.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n How colours work together, \u201ccolour theory\u201d, is a large area of study by many artists over several centuries,\u00a0 and it\u2019s a bit daunting for those who find pages of terms and definitions wherever they look for information on working with color. \u00a0To help overcome this problem area I teach a one day, non sewing workshop – \u201cColour Confidence For the Theory Challenged Quilter\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/span> Using several \u00a0different visual sources, students experience several very practical methods of devising a colour scheme that really works.\u00a0 Towards the end of the workshop, as these results are reviewed, students are introduced to basic color terminology, \u00a0colour\/hue\/tint\/shade,\u00a0 and \u00a0monochromatic\/complementary\/triadic \u00a0etc. \u00a0with reference to a color wheel. \u00a0Without knowing any technical terms these students have already successfully put together viable personal color schemes, and for most this eye opener is enough color information to enable them to continue creating confidently without deeper theoretical study; \u00a0for others it is a starting point for further study if they wish to pursue it.\u00a0 But I think everyone\u00a0 should \u00a0know of these online color resources which have recently appeared out on some of the lists I read :<\/p>\n www.design-seeds.com<\/a> helpful in finding some basic color schemes from everyday things. http:\/\/colorschemedesigner.com<\/a> an interactive, ie online, color wheel \u00a0\u2013 a real strength is that schemes are presented as balanced with major and minor colours in different proportions.\u00a0 http:\/\/letschipit.com<\/a> is an interesting little site by Sherwin Williams, the paint company.\u00a0 It\u2019s an app that lets you move your mouse over a photo online and it will produce a color card of up to 10 colours from that.\u00a0 An interesting little \u2018how it works\u2019 video, and I was all keen to bring it on, but somehow I could only sign on through facebook, and I chose not to do that.<\/p>\n Cynthia’s Quilt – the colour scheme\u00a0was\u00a0developed\u00a0around\u00a0several pieces of fabric from her native South Africa that Cynthia\u00a0wanted included in the work.\u00a0 It was photographed against a black background.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Colour surrounds us, and every day we make choices based on colours, instinctively wanting to make wise choices.\u00a0 As we take clothes from our wardrobes, the weather,\u00a0scheduled activities and even our hormones\u00a0influence colour choices without us thinking of these connections. \u00a0\u00a0At a salad bar,\u00a0the colour of a food is a factor in choice; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6uxpF-oI","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1532"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1538,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions\/1538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}