I’m so excited! I’ve created a tutorial on Making a Quilter’s Color Wheel, and you can click on the slidecast here to view it. This took me a couple days to do: an afternoon to shoot the photos and another day to make the slideshow, record the audio, upload and troubleshoot.
Want to receive your free color wheel chart instantly? Click here!
Check out my video tutorials on my YouTube Channel here. I add a new video each month!
Hi Maria,
You visited my blog last week or so and left a lovely comment. I immediately dropped by your blog and registered for email updates! I look forward to trying the Color Wheel tutorial and following your creative process. Great to meet you!!!
I was looking for a way to select the rainbow colors that I want to use for my next quilt, and this tutorial provided the perfect answer! I can’t wait to try this technique.
Thanks for this tut, Maria. I needed help, especially with the Tertiaries, as you said! (I found you thru SMSew’s blog, by the way.)
I’ll be back for more – I may just make a Color Wheel and show you.
Thanks for sharing.
Suzanne G in NC
Maria,
Thank you for this tutorial. I’m going to go through my stash and make one up!!
Eileen –
Good luck on your color wheel. You’ll be amazed at how easy it is and how your stash is reflected back to you on the page. Let us hear back from you after your color wheel is done!
Maria
Thank you so much for this great slide show. You made it very easy to understand, and as Suzanne said, I needed help with the Tertiary colors. Thanks again!
Great tutorial. You make it very simple and straight forward, I like that. Where can I find your colorwheel chart to download? thank so much!
[...] Make a color wheel using your own fabric stash. I have a fun and easy tutorial on how to do this here. [...]
[...] quilters eager to master color have asked where they can find the color wheel chart I use in my tutorial on Making a Quilter’s Color Wheel. It’s now available on the same page as the [...]
Thanks for you tutorial. When I did mine, I had a hard time finding colors that didn’t include red, and fabrics that didn’t have florals…Now I know I really need to make myself buy some plain fabrics and some geometrics!!
Thank you so much for the color wheel tutorial. Picking the color scheme of my quilts is the part I find most difficult. I am hurrying to my local quilt store to pick up your book. I am sure it will help me to become less color-challenged.
Maria:
I’d like your permission to tell my students about your website and your tutorial on making your own “Color Wheel.”
I lecture on color and found your site to be full of great information.
Thanks!
Mary-Anne
Can I have a “Color Wheel” mail to me. I am a beginner at quilting and I am having a hard time blending my fabric colors. My mother and I are going to watch your Quilter’s Color Wheel Tutorial in a minute.
Your website is very educational.
Hi Maria,
I’m new to quilting. Love to quilt hate shopping for new fabric. Having a hard time blending my fabric colors.
Loved your tutorial on the Color Wheel what a helpful tool.
Just a question. How much of a partical color should you include in your quilt? Is there a formula? I will pick up your book in my favorite store. I’m sure it will help me become less color challengend. Great job. Thanks again,and thanks to Jodie Davis for telling me about you.
Hi Anita – you ask a great question! We hear a lot about how to choose colors but not so much on how much of each color to use. That’s a big part of any quilt is getting the right balance of each color so one doesn’t overwhelm the others. I recommend a guideline painters use (I do this in my watercolor paintings) called the “Three Bears Rule of Color,” and the Renaissance quilt project in Color Mastery incorporates it into the fabrics you select. It’s a 6-fat quarter quilt and an easy way to learn both what colors to use and how much of each to get just the right harmony. Good luck and let me know how you do with it!
Hi Maria. I just found your tutorial and I am making color wheels like crazy. I made small ones for my purse, quilt tote and laptop bag, a larger one for classes and retreats, and a beautiful one like a wreath for my sewing room wall! Just wanted to say thanks.
Lesa
JustPlainLaine.com
Lesa – glad you’ve caught the color wheel excitement! I’d love to share your color wheels with my readers, so send some photos to me at maria [at] colormastery.com and I’ll post them here on the blog.
Very helpful! Thank you! I am a beginning quilter, so this will really help me with my color selections! I would love to see more tutorials on color density. I have a hard time with that one too.
Glad you found me Peggy. Make sure to connect with other quilters, either online or in person. It really helps to have people to share your love of quilting with!
I just finished listening to your conversation with Pat Sloan. I enjoyed the podcast. I also found your tutorial of the color wheel very informative. I have printed off the color wheel and plan to put one together. I look forward to receiving your newsletter.
Janet, glad to hear you heard the Pat Sloan interview. It was fun, wasn’t it? Glad you printed off the color wheel. The tutorial is a big help and makes it super easy. Be sure to check out my article in the Feb/Mar issue of Quilters Newsletter too!
Great idea putting samples of fabric up into a colour circle, very helpful, only the colour circle information is not accurate and if followed will lead to further problems and complications.
A PRIMARY is a colour that cannot be mixed from any other colour.
Red is a mixture of magenta and yellow and therefore is not a primary.
THE THREE PRIMARIES ARE cyan blue, yellow and magenta.
The colours that are created by mixing any two of the primaries are called HUES, the TERTIARIES are a mixture of any three of the hues and or primaries, and are therefore rich browns.
TINTS are any hue or primary or tertiary mixed with white, and a SHADE is any hue, primary or tertiary mixed with black.
I hope this clears up some of the basics.
The Colour wheel is best understood when applying the principles of yellow based colours and blue based colours and the power of opposites for dynamic quilting.
Mary – The color theory you’re discussing is generated from computer graphics – the cyan, magenta, and yellow – instead of red, blue, and yellow. The CMY palette is important for graphic designers, fabric designers, and other professionals, but absolutely irrelevant for the average person. It’s not a matter of who’s right and who’s wrong, but what’s appropriate for the general public. There is no reason for a quilter to learn CMY unless they plan to design fabric. I specifically chose to use red, blue, and yellow, because it’s the palette that’s been in use for thousands of years and will stand the test of time.