Join me for a live tutorial on YouTube this Wednesday at 8pm Central Time (AKA Chicago Time). On this video, I’ll be showing you one of my favorite quilt color hack. I’ve used this exact color hack to simplify how I choose colors for my most colorful quilts.
During the live tutorial, I’ll be showing you the quilt color hack I used to decide on the final color layout for the Rainbow Triangles BOM Quilt. Rainbow Triangles has 50 colors. Yikes! 50! colors! That’s a lot. And even for a self proclaimed, color expert, that many colors can be overwhelming. Just choosing 50 colors can be quite a timely endeavor.
And frankly, the idea of choosing 50 colors myself without a framework or a structure just exhausts me! I don’t want to do that. I’m all about making things as easy as possible.
Here’s what I knew: I knew I wanted this quilt to be a burst of color with colors that organically bled from one color to the next. And I also knew I needed to find a better, faster, and more fun way to choose the colors.
My goal for this quilt color hack is to create an easy strategy for choosing colors that bleed organically from one color to the next.
What could have been a tedious, in depth, days long, color challenge instead became a fun and arty strategy. Without the color hack, I think I would have been caught up in a lot of higher order thinking about which color would go where and how would that color merge with that color… and on and on and on. And at some point I’m confident I would get tired and frustrated with all that!
This quilt color hack takes the guess work and higher order thinking out of trying to divine and analyze how colors might bleed together by using watercolors. Yah! Let’s use those art supplies we bought, ha!
In short, my basic Quilt Color Hack is this:
- I used watercolors to paint an abstract painting.
- Then I layered the quilt design over the painting.
- Finally I observed and recorded the colors I saw in each block using my Kona Color Card chips.
Live Tutorial (Live on YouTube)
I’ll be demonstrating this quilt color hack live on YouTube this Wednesday, March 6, at 8pm Central Time (Chicago Time). Click over to RSVP/Get a Reminder if you like. Grab yourself a glass of your favorite wine or dessert and tune in! If you want to play along, here’s the materials list you’ll want to have ready.
Materials: Watercolors, thick paper, water, paper towel, and water color brushes. You also might want to have a quilt design in mind. I recommend using a repeating geometric shape. BHQ Insider Tip: You can print out one on my free coloring sheets from my patterns. You *might* be able to print it right on your thick paper. Not sure if that will work, but it could be cool? I’ve done it with limited success…
The replay will be available afterwards for those of you who can’t tune in live.
Want more Quilt Color Hacks?
I hope to see you on Wednesday, but in the meantime, if you’re looking for more quilt color hacks, you may be interested in these resources:
- Top 10 Tips for Playful Color Download (Click here.)
- Playful Color Quick Start (free mini course)
- Playful Color Month (a series of articles I wrote last September)
