The Quilter's Practical Guide to Color: Includes 10 Skill-Building Projects

by Becky Goldsmith

Overview

Did you know that the biggest struggle for quilters of all types is color selection? Unlock the secrets to winning color combinations from best-selling author Becky Goldsmith of Piece O’ Cake Designs. Learn how every quilt has a foreground and a background, how to use clear versus gray colors—plus other essentials that will shake up your design process. Quilters of all skill levels will appreciate Becky’s practical, easy-to-understand advice. Put your newfound knowledge to the test with 10 pieced and appliquéd projects designed to focus on specific aspects of color. Includes visual examples to explain all color topics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781607058649
Publisher:	C & T Publishing
Publication date:	04/01/2015
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Becky Goldsmith has spent many years thinking, learning, and teaching color and quilt design. She and Linda Jenkins started the quilt pattern company Piece O’ Cake Designs in 1994. She lives in Sherman, Texas, with her husband. pieceocake.com.

Table of Contents

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 Penguins—Oh 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 Help—I’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 Appliqué 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

Editorial Reviews

01/19/2015
“Playing with color is the happiest part of quilting,” writes Goldsmith, a cofounder of Piece o’Cake Designs, a quilt specialty firm. Fun, yes, but scary, too, she allows. The actual quilt is what she finds at the end of a process that began some time back, combining colors with designs. Color is the crossroads of science and art, so one of Goldsmith’s first lessons is to explain how the color wheel works. With that wheel in hand (or mind), Goldsmith explains monochromatic and complementary color schemes, as well as triadic, quadratic, analogous, and rainbow ones. She includes information about color value and contrast, and considerations about color on fabric, the texture and scale of which can affect how color is perceived. In these lessons, Goldsmith offers blocks of practical advice: for example, organized fabric stashes do matter for making quilts. Although the guide is less about quilt-making and more about designing with color, she offers 10 projects dedicated to building skills, including an ugly-fabric challenge, which teaches the process of “auditioning” colors. The author’s motto: “You are the boss of color.” (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Becky get right to the heart of the matter in this release: picking colors for a project is scary! It's also a joy for our quilter's senses, so let's find out why color scares us with Becky's help. Guidelines on seven colors schemes are followed by lessons in value and contrast, the natures of fabric, clear colors, textures and scale and more. And in each section we're given practical advice. The 10 projects challenge us to put our newfound skills to use, such as working with colors we don't like and pairing clear colors with gray colors. This is a juicy skill builder we'll be turning to often.

September/October 2015 Generation Q

Goldsmith believes "that what makes color scary to quilters is that it forces them to make a lasting decision." In this book she not only covers color theory basics, but lives up to the title by addressing specific types of quilting fabrics and how they function in quilts for a comprehensive look that goes beyond hue and value. Print scale, color clarity, "ugly" fabrics, backgrounds vs. foregrounds and more are discussed individually and in the context of 10 new patterns.

April/May 2016 Quilters Newsletter

Stuck in a color rut and afraid to try something new? Becky from Piece O'Cake Designs helps you truly make it 'a piece of cake' to bring new life - and color - into your quilts. With Becky's practical advice on color concepts, you'll be making colorific quilts in no time!

Quilter's Connection for Canadian Quilters

04/01/2015
Color choice is key to the look of a quilt, but choosing the right colors to produce a desired effect can be difficult. In this guide, quilter Goldsmith (The Best-Ever Appliqué Sampler from Piece O' Cake Designs) provides an approachable overview of color theory, with a focus on its application to quiltmaking. Goldsmith takes the "practical" aspect seriously—her focus isn't on the whys of color theory but on the theory in practice, including plenty of color-wheel illustrations, as well as photographs of both finished quilts and fabric stacks to demonstrate the process of color choice. Ten projects allow quilters of various styles and skill levels the opportunity to practice their new-found color confidence. VERDICT There are several "color for quilters" books available—it's a hot topic—but this is one of the most user-friendly, plus it features the bright, cheery quilts (several including her trademark appliqué) Goldsmith is known for.

Library Journal