The Quilter's Practical Guide to Color

April 2015 As Becky Goldsmith points out in her introduction to this book, the importance of choosing the right colours for a project can often be daunting to the point of being scary, as with a quilt it seems so final - a poor combination can doom an otherwise pleasing design. Becky's bright exuberant book provides and enthusiastic and eminently practical guide to getting it right, and taking the dear factor out of the equation. The book is brilliantly written; Becky loves her subject, and all of the advice and guidance is friendly, readable, informal and - best of all - aimed at quilters specifically, rather than often repeated generic colour advice being lumped in with a few practical examples. Becky wants you to 'be the boss of colour' and take ownership of your choices. She challenges some accepted wisdom, such as working with colours you don't like, and a special mention must go to her Ugly Fabric Challenge project, borne of people sending her deliberately nasty fabrics to make something beautiful with! It work. We love this book; it's a delight to read and genuinely useful, and you should have it. * Popular Patchwork * The opening sentence in this book sums it up: "We all love colour". Some of us may struggle with the idea of colour theory but there are ways of easing yourself into the subject. 'The Colour Mixing Guide' by Julie Collins (also reviewed in this issue) is a good starting point but this book shifts the focus to using colour in quilting. Starting with a look at how to create good colour schemes using the colour wheel, the first part of the book is devoted to planning a quilt. Value and contrast, texture and scale, using different types of fabric (Predictable and Unpredictable) and how to distinguish your background and foreground fabrics are all explained. These sections are very useful containing practical advice without getting too technical. There are also many 'Practical Advice' sections which troubleshoot problems that you may encounter. This is a project book and there are ten quilts to make. What is interesting is that they are all referred to in the descriptive text at the beginning of the book, so you are given an insight into the process of putting these quilts together. You can see how some of the quilts have had their colour schemes changed, how fabrics were auditioned or how the design was used with colour to keep the eyes moving to focal points. Having the finished quilts and understanding how the author changed things around to get there makes this an excellent hands-on teaching tool. The quilts vary in colour and style so you have a good cross section of approaches to choose from, including the 'Ugly Fabric Challenge', started with a call for ugly fabrics through Becky Goldsmith's blog and which lead to a colourful and unoffensive quilt. This book is a very practical approach to colour but what makes it worth having is that it is used according to its combination with all the other considerations of quilt making, so that you are looking at the process as a combination of parts. * Workshop on the Web *

Becky Goldsmith and business partner Linda Jenkins started Piece O' Cake Designs in 1994. Designing and making quilts, writing books, and teaching others how to make quilts is a better career than Becky could ever have imagined. For more information visit www.pieceocake.com.

Introduction The Color Wheel How the Color Wheel Works The True Colors Primary Colors Secondary Colors Tertiary Colors Neutrals About Black and White Prints Color Temperature Color Schemes Color Relativity Monochromatic Color Schemes Complementary Color Schemes Split Complementary Color Schemes Triadic Color Schemes Quadratic Color Schemes Analogous Color Schemes Rainbow Color Schemes Value and Contrast Value Color and Contrast What Do You See? The Nature of Fabric Predictable Fabrics Solids Textured Solids Prints: Dots, Circular Designs, Flowers and Zigzags and PenguinsOh My Conversation Prints Directional Fabric: Stripes and Plaids Unpredictable Fabrics Big Prints Easier-To-Use Big Prints Big Print Quilt Backs Unpredictable Hand Dyes Clarity Distance and Color Combining Clear and Gray Colors Color Clarity and Fabric Texture and Scale Actual Texture Visual Texture Scale Combining Different Scales Scale in Composition The Structure of a Quilt Identify the Background And Foreground Backgrounds Foregrounds You Are the Boss of Color HelpI've fallen in Love With a Photo Using Colors You Do Not Like Building Stacks Focus Fabrics Finding Inspiration Design and Audition The Changeable Nature of Color Auditioning Pieced Quilts Auditioning Applique Quilts Subtle Considerations Reading A Quilt Following Lines Giving the Impression of Light Fabric Basics Buying Fabric Organizing Your Stash Fabric Preparation Fabric Requirements Borders Projects The Ugly Quilt Challenge (using a random assortment of ugly fabric) Ode to Fred and Put A Bird On It (using a big print as the background) Square Play (using a triadic color scheme) Opposites Attract (using complementary colors) Tile Tango (using one differently colored block, color scheme) Say Something (using black & white prints) Pixie Sticks Box of Rain (interplay of clear colors and gray colors) Tick Tock (foreground in bright clear colors / background in grayed colors) Stairway to Heaven (emphasizing background, shadow, and foreground) Appendix Half-Square Triangles About the Author Online Color Resources