A Quilter's Perogative


I'm not sure why, but lately I have had problems choosing fabric colors for my quilts. Perhaps it is because I have been too busy to work on my own quilts and am out of practice. It may also be that I have been studying color theory and realizing that there is a lot more to choosing colors than I had previously known. Going by instinct can work, but I think I have been over-thinking my choices the past few months.

Finishing the Blue Lily quilt has been difficult. I think I have made my final fabric choices, pin the quilt on my design wall, and after looking at it for a few days I realize I don't like it.

 

The orange pieced background above was my first choice. I thought using complementary colors would be a great choice. But this background overpowers the lily appliques. I also learned that orange isn't the complement of blue on the Ives color wheel, but that orange-yellow was the complement. I didn't like orange-yellow, though. It was also too strong.


Then I tried yellow. It is too bright and made the quilt hard to look at for very long. What I learned in my study of color was that I needed to mute the background color if I wanted the blue lilies to stand out. So I changed fabrics again. The first photo is the final choice. It's a golden-yellow batik. Once it is quilted and embellished the lilies will come to life. I'll post a photo of the quilt once it is finished.

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