COLOR CONFIDENCE AS TOLD BY AN INTERIOR DESIGNER!

First off, let me thank everyone who commented on my blog and appreciated the quilt I had made to support Breast Cancer. It was fun and I still plan to make the "bras" but another day on that. Today I am going to start a thread on Color Confidence. I am an interior decorator with 30 years experience putting colors and fabrics together for my clients. I've won lots of design awards and a special award from Waverly Fabrics in the late 1980's when that Waverly look was so popular. I became a quilter 4 years ago in 2010 after taking a beginning class. I was always an avid seamstress and I took to quilting like a duck to water. When it came to trying to adapt my color and fabric selections to the quilting terms of "light, medium, dark and value," it was difficult for me to wrap my head around them. After all, these terms are not descriptive of any sort of color or fabric that I was familiar with. So I bungled along, choosing fabrics and patterns for my quilts and bags and making color choices using my skill as an interior designer. It worked and I churned out quilt after quilt. Then I started hearing from other members in my quilt guild who would say, "I have such a difficult time picking out fabrics." "I'm not good with colors." "I only buy kits so I don't have to pick out fabrics." " Illustrated is a blue and yellow quilt I made with a honey bun and an Eleanor Burns pattern. I didn't have to pick out anything, just choose the two colors that would go in each block. An easy quilt for anyone. So this year, my guild was looking for speakers and I decided that I was no longer a novice quilter and it was time for me to share my color expertise. I'm practicing my speech on you, my blog readers. I finally decided to learn about the terms, light, medium, and dark. I learned I already knew what they meant as it is just about choosing the right tones and colors while pulling fabrics. I just don't use these terms to describe my selections. I don't say to my clients, "why don't we put a medium drapery here." Or "how about some dark wallpaper?" I use terms like pale pink, bright fuschia, and vibrant burgundy. Now how to get that across to quilters? So I've come up with a plan and I'm excited to share. It's called "FIND FIVE FOR FABRIC FREEDOM!" Next time part 2. Happy a happy day! Carol