Today Helen Granleese gave us a very informative talk about choosing colours for our quilts. She endorsed the belief that quilters choose colours as carefully as artists choose paint.
The talk concentrated on the printed fabrics most commonly used by quilt makers. How these printed fabrics have changed through the 1930’s, 40’s 50’s and 60’s.
Some choice hints included choosing shades from dark to light. Using a deep dark and an accent colour in a lighter version.
How backgrounds have changed from the traditional white and cream to include greys, taupes and pastel colours.
Question to ask yourself – Are you going to make a light or dark quilt?
How prints should range from small, medium to large. How spots, checks and stripes can be regular or irregular. How florals give us soft lines and geometrics give us hard lines.
And don’t forget the “hero fabric”. Use it to choose your deepest and lightest fabrics to match.
Helen showed us her own lovely quilts as examples and even included an antique quilt she rescued for a small sum of money in the USA.
Thank you very much Helen, I hope my breakdown does your talk justice.
On Saturday many of us are off to our annual Zone Day. This is a gathering of quilters from all over the North East of NSW. Have fun and wear your pearls!!!
Helen with an early quilt showing colours from light to dark and prints in small to large.
A mainly hand pieced quilt showing the use of deepest dark.
This quilt shows how to mix and match prints for an interesting scrappy look with plain borders setting off the colours perfectly.
