Fall Color Ideas
Hello Friends!
First of all I just want to thank you all for the warm welcome and thoughtful comments on my new website and post about my first quilt. I love our quilty community so much and I am inspired by all of the makers putting themselves and their art out there every day!
Now that the lovey dovey stuff is out of the way let’s get down to quilty business shall we? I get asked about color and how to mix and match and apply it to quilting all the time. I thought maybe I would give you a bit of an idea how I go about using color to help me choose fabric for a quilty project. I ran across the image above from Creative Market https://creativemarket.com/blog/15-downloadable-color-palettes-for-fall?utm_source=cm-popular-products-email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pp-ta-10-19-17 this morning and it got me itching to go play in my stash. Since you can’t join me in my sewing room I’ll try to throw out some cyber ideas. Deal?
The image screams fall to me and while I don’t have a specific pattern in mind I can definitely use this color palette in a number of different projects. Let’s break down some of the colors in the palette and see what fabric we can find to fit the bill. The first color that caught my eye is that rich charcoal grey. I can see using this as your background fabric, maybe in a quilt like V and Company’s new Fall Breeze Ombre pattern http://vandco.bigcartel.com/product/fall-breeze-ombre-quilt-pattern
My all time favorite charcoal grey is Cloud 9 Organic Cirrus Broadcloth in Shadow but Kona Cotton has some lovely grey options as well. Any of these would work well in this particular palette. I am sticking with a solid grey for this go round. Maybe in another post I will share how to use a print for your background.
Let’s move on to the next color in our palette. I will work from left to right and “pull” fabric online to see what we can come up with. I’ll call that lovely orange on the far left pumpkin. Mostly because I love pumpkin anything…pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin pie…I digress. Anyway, I did a little online window shopping and came up with some great calorie free pumpkin options. That first choice is an Art Gallery print that I adore but any of the other choice could work in our imaginary Fall Color palette.
Moving right along to color #2. Let’s call this one light peach just for fun shall we? Again, I hit the interwebs for some virtual fabric shopping and came up with some great ideas.
I’m sticking with prints for this go round but if you wanted a solid Kona Ice Peach would be a great choice.
On to color #3 which we’ll call dusty rose as a throw back to my mother’s 80s home decor palette. For some reason this color and I have a love hate relationship. Don’t know if it’s the dusty part or the rose part. Either way I don’t normally reach for when I’m throwing out cash at my local quilt store. Moving on…
If we were sticking as closely as we can to the plan the first choice is perfect! It’s an Elizabeth Hartman for Robert Kaufman print from her Pond line called Diamond Stripe Rose. I guess the rose part is pretty handy afterall.
The last color in our palette I’m going to call dark rose. Only because I’ve used up all of my color naming brain power and it’s all I’ve got left. I feel like this is a color we can play with just a bit. Let me show you…
That floral is another Art Gallery print and it totally makes me swoon. If you haven’t worked with Art Gallery fabrics before you are in for a treat. Their “hand” or feel of the fabric is so soft and smooth. Almost like butter if that’s your thing 🙂 I would be just as happy with that second print. Another Elizabeth Hartman design but from her Reef line this time.
The last thing I thought I would show you is what a fabric pull might look like from my real life stash. Exciting stuff right?! Well like I told you in the last post I am a truth teller and my truth is that I have a pretty good sized stash. I’ve been quilting about 17 years now and I worked at a fabric store for a couple of years before that. You could say that I have a bunch of fabric. Some of which I can’t bear to part with but I love to use when I can. I spent a large part of my childhood with my paternal grandparents who both lived through the depression and raised children after WWII. I remember my Grandpa telling me over and over that we “use it up, wear it out, make do or do without.” So that is part of the fabric of my life. Fabric…get it 🙂 Anyway what this all boils down to is this…I use old and new fabric together ALL the time. Don’t get me wrong I have little self control in my local quilt shop just like the next girl. But, and I mean a big BUT, I firmly believe there is nothing wrong with using what you have right along with the newest designer prints. If you don’t know how old the fabric is or whether or not it is clean and starched then prewash that baby. Use a Shout Color Catcher
and rinse and repeat until you aren’t getting any color on the Color Catcher and you are certain it is nice and clean. When you’ve taken that precaution then you can most definitely use your fabric hoard…I mean stash.
So how did I do in my real life fabric stash? Take a look and see what you think. Remember that our Fall Color palette is meant as just a jumping off point. By all means use it to start with but mix and match and customize as you go!
For this first photo I stuck with our original palette as closely as possible. That luscious grey is the Cloud 9 Organic Cirrus Broadcloth in Shadow that I told you was my favorite. I try to keep it on hand at all times. The rest of the prints were all from different designers and some were newer than others. If you want more info on the specific prints just comment below and I will get back to you.
For option number 2 I replaced the peachy pinkish quilty star print with a lighter peach with green polka dot. I think this option works just as well. I don’t know about you but I’ve never met a polka dot I didn’t like. This would be a good choice if you want to mellow things out a bit. I kept the rest of the palette the same as I was already loving it.
For the third and final option I replaced the lighter peach polka dot print with a stripe. Again this option would be fabulous and I wouldn’t hesitate to use it for sure! Now that you all have a peak into how I pull fabrics from my stash for a new project I’d love to hear your tips and tricks. One of my favorite things about quilting is sharing inspiration so do tell what methods you use when inspiration strikes.
Until next time quilty friends.
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