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The Art of Choosing: Building a Color Scheme Around a Single

Hi, I'm Jeni Baker!
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The Art of Choosing is a series discussing fabric, color, and the fabric selection process. The purpose of this
series is to arm you with the tools and knowledge to build your own color schemes for your sewing and quilting
projects. You'll dive deep into your stash, organize it, and hopefully look at your fabrics in a new way.

Building a Color Scheme Around a Single Fabric

Today we're going to discuss building a color scheme around a single fabric. This is a great time to pull out those
focus and multi-colored fabrics. They're the perfect starting point for a great color scheme!

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The Art of Choosing: Building a Scheme Around a Single Fabric, originally uploaded by jenib320.
For this exercise I've chosen Eye Drops in Dusk from Parisville by Tula Pink. It has a lot of different colors for us
to work with.

Bear Paw Pillow Pattern

The Art of Choosing: Building a Scheme Around a Single Fabric, originally uploaded by jenib320.
Just like when we supplement a fabric collection, to get started, pull the main colors out of the fabric. There are a
lot of shades of purple, green and blue in this fabric.
The Art of Choosing: Building a Scheme Around a Single Fabric, originally uploaded by jenib320.
Don't forget those colors dots on the selvedge of your fabric. They're a great reference for identifying the
different colors in a fabric print.
Round Wooden Beads
As you're pulling fabrics, keep a few things in mind:
1. While pulling individual colors, be sure to grab a few Tone on Tone and Color + White prints.

2. When choosing prints with large and small accents, be thoughtful about the colors of those accents. Those
accents shouldn't clash with the other colors in the scheme/ In this case, I'm working with a warm color palette,
so I'm avoiding cool colors like blue and green.

3. Think about using a good mix of geometric and floral prints.

4. Consider adding in solids. Finding solids that match the colors in the collection you're working with can make
it easier to pull supporting prints.

Plums

Cotton Twill Tape

The Art of Choosing: Building a Scheme Around a Single Fabric, originally uploaded by jenib320.
These two shades of plum were the two main colors in the fabric.

Purples

Cotton Webbing

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The Art of Choosing: Building a Scheme Around a Single Fabric, originally uploaded by jenib320.
These two are more of a blue-purple.

Greens
The Art of Choosing: Building a Scheme Around a Single Fabric, originally uploaded by jenib320.
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I chose a range of shades that were in the original fabric.

Blues Jeni Baker

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The Art of Choosing: Building a Scheme Around a Single Fabric, originally uploaded by jenib320.
I added more blue than the swatches to add a little more depth.

Blue/Green

The Art of Choosing: Building a Scheme Around a Single Fabric, originally uploaded by jenib320.
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I couldn't help but add some blue/green fabrics.

Here are a few prints that I passed over while putting together my stack:
The Art of Choosing: Building a Scheme Around a Single Fabric, originally uploaded by jenib320.
1. Park Slope by Erin McMorris - Not quite the right shade of green.
2. Park Slope by Erin McMorris - Pink accents don't match well.
3. Park Slope by Erin McMorris - Orange accents don't match well.
4. Farmer's Market by Sandi Henderson - Darker blue isn't quite right.
5. Modern Meadow by Joel Dewberry - Navy was a little too stark with the other prints, it stood out.
6. Weekends by Erin McMorris - Coral/red accents don't quite work.
7. Lizzy Dish by Lizzy House - Coral/red accents don't quite work.
8. Meadow Sweet 2 by Sandi Henderson - This shade is too red, plum in the Parisville print is more of a blue
purple.
9. Garden Party by Anna Maria Horner - Plum is perfect but the pink accents don't work.
10. Full Moon Forest by Tula Pink - This shade has a little too much blue in it.

Finished Stack

The Art of Choosing: Building a Scheme Around a Single Fabric, originally uploaded by jenib320.
Here is the finished fabric stack, with our starting fabric on top. Some coordinating solids would be a nice
addition as well.

The next post in this series is on Building a Color Scheme Around a Photo.

MY PATTERNS
Posted by Jeni Baker

Labels: Fabric , The Art of Choosing , Tutorial

19 comments :
Anonymous March 1, 2011 at 2:01 PM

I always spend way more time than I should matching fabric but they are just sooooo beautiful to look at, no? :D

Reply

Karee March 1, 2011 at 2:14 PM

fabric love affair!

Reply

Jen March 1, 2011 at 2:17 PM

So pretty. One thing I like to do when building a colour scheme around a single fabric is to use the colour dots on the
selvedge. It works especially well to find matching solids -- I just hold the dots up to my Kona colour card until I find
the closest match.

Reply

Christina Lane | The Sometimes Crafter March 1, 2011 at 2:19 PM

Perfect! You make it look so easy! I can't wait to go this route on my current quilt. I'm going to scrap the fabrics I
have already chosen and give it a go again!

Reply

michelle moen - oldladyrose/missmamiegirl March 1, 2011 at 2:32 PM

I love this read. GREAT stack too!

i always pull and put back and pull again when trying to coordinate.

the hardest part i am having when trying to coordinate is matching my designer fabric to joanns fabrics. i cant afford
all designer fabric so i tend to mix up my stash but when coordinating the 2 together it sometimes is tedious

Reply

Rachel at Stitched in Color March 1, 2011 at 3:20 PM

this is probably the most funnest thing to do, am I right? I did this last night with the Big E Michael Miller fabrics. It's
so free and artful. I love your finished stack!

Reply

Anna March 1, 2011 at 3:57 PM

great great post jeni! what an awesome group of tips, thank you. :)

Reply

Dianne March 1, 2011 at 4:30 PM

Jeni -- This is my favorite of your 'stash series'! I often don't know where to begin when trying to pull fabric, and I
LOVE the idea of building around one favorite fabric. Especially helpful was seeing fabric that you "rejected" for the
completed stack and why. What a helpful post!

Reply

Bloom March 1, 2011 at 4:46 PM

Jeni, thanks for your Art of Choosing series. I am loving it! I really appreciate the time you've taken to share your
expertise with us.

Reply

Anonymous March 1, 2011 at 10:12 PM

This is the most fantastic series....I have learned so much! I am probably the most color challenged person there is.
Thanks so much for sharing these tips with us. I feel more confident now, to go look over my stash and pull some
things together. I even think my scrappy quilts will be more pleasing now!
Jacque in SC
quiltnsrep(at)yahoo(dot)com

Reply

Megan March 1, 2011 at 11:02 PM

I love this post Jeni! Such a fun way to plan a quilt!

Reply

Kelly Rachel March 2, 2011 at 5:30 AM

Another great post! I am totally loving this series. Thanks for all your hard work put into 'edumacating' us. ;D

Reply
 jenni March 2, 2011 at 11:10 AM

An EXCELLENT post!

Reply

Cindy March 3, 2011 at 7:36 PM

I have so loved your series and spent this week organizing my stash. I didn't get any sewing done! but really enjoyed
folding all my fabric. It feels so good to have everything so neat and organized. Thank you so much!! I blogged about
it here:
http://hyacinthquiltdesigns.blogspot.com/2011/03/fabric.html

Reply

Live a Colorful Life March 7, 2011 at 6:56 PM

I just found this series. Awesome. I'm going back to read lots and lots of your archives!

Reply

Elizabeth Lopez March 4, 2012 at 8:22 PM

your blog is my fav! I'm in LOVE!

Reply

Sarah Goer Quilts June 15, 2014 at 2:34 AM

You are amazing! I'm loving this series!!

Reply

dianne April 5, 2016 at 11:58 PM

I'm a newbie(haven't finished my quilt yet)& I don't have a stash yet, & money is a lil tight right now. I understand
finding one fabric, then building off that, But how do you know how much to buy of each fabric? you bought a total
of 21 fabrics, is there a yardage to go by??? TIA for any, & all help :)

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Jeni Baker April 6, 2016 at 10:07 AM

I don't think there is any right amount to buy, and it varies a lot from person to person! I typically buy fat
quarters or 1/2 yards. If it's something I really like I'll buy a yard!

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