Color Palette Fabric Selections

The March color palette was unveiled yesterday at Judy's blog. That's also the post where you can link up your February challenge project. Be sure to check out the great projects that have been entered into the February drawing.

In this post I'll show you a few options for choosing fabrics for the March palette.

I started with my stash of hand dyed fabrics. They are close to being solids so are a great way to start to analyze the palette. My first decision was to pull 2 grays and a black. That's the the easiest place to start and I always start with easy. Next I pulled a wide variety of reds and oranges.  After fondling these for a while I decided that I wanted a deep red, almsot cranberry, for my primary red color. Next I pulled a lighter value of that red and then the orange and gold. 

When you select fabrics, take it one at a time. Don't let the choices overwhelm you.

This is the final palette that I picked.

I converted my fabric photo to grayscale to check the value ranges....and I like it!

Now, let's look at a couple of other options.

This is a set of fabrics that I bought a year or two ago at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival. They are from one of my favorite vendors, Handloom Batiks. When I was thinking about the color palette I remembered these fabrics. This photo only has a few of the fabrics. I have enough for a whole quilt. If I have the time in Martch to piece a quick quilt top I will use these for my palette fabrics. It has the black, grays, reds and a tiny bit of gold. It's perfect!

Of course if the palette is too complex for your tastes, simplify it. At it's essence it's a black and red palette and you can certainly make a black and red project. But you could even spice up a palette like this. (I'm sorry for this crappy photo quality but you get the idea.)

Instead of the gold in the original palette, brighten it up and add a tiny bit of bold yellow to your black and red project. Doesn't that make it more exciting?

So, are you going to join us? Check out Judy's fabric selections here. I got a sneal peek at her project and it's very cool!

Comments

[Yvonne]

Love your final choice....I'm loving these posts.

[Debra]

I wonder if I have the fabric in my stash to play along this month. I think I'll look. My preference would be to just own that glass vase but you know . . .

These are very similiar colors I've been using on my past 3 CQJP blocks.