How to Choose Quilt Colors

So, one of the most common comments that I hear from quilters is, I'm afraid to choose my own colors, or, I don't have enough confidence to choose my own colors for a quilt, let's just go buy a kit. So I have a couple of tips for you that might help you get more confidence about your color choices. One thing I always do is, when I'm designing a new project, I cut a little piece of fabric off of every piece of material that I use, and I make it into a palette on a page. I go ahead and line them up according to values like this. And then I saved these palettes after I'm finished with every project.

And the reason for that is, I can come back to it later and get re-inspired all over again for one thing. But also, it tends to help me to develop my color sense. So I would encourage you to do the same thing. You could even hole punch 'em and put 'em into a notebook. And occasionally, I'll find one of the palettes, for instance this one, which has a lot of darks and a lot of blues, and I take a fresh look at it maybe a year from now, and decide that, hey, this would make a great quilt.

So, once again, be sure you save your color palettes, and put extra thought into them as you're putting them together, it'll be well worth the investment of your time at the beginning of every project. And I think you'll develop your color abilities and confidence as you go along, and within a year or two, you won't have that comment anymore, you'll be excited to choose your own colors.