We all have our likes and dislikes. Maybe it’s that some have style and class and some do not. I’ve never cared about what colors were in style or what colors look better on me. I love bright! We once built a Victorian house and I wanted it to be purple. I got talked down to a lavender gray.
House
Ahhh . . a house with green grass. How nice! I loved that house. That had been the house that I had planned for years and years and we only lived there 2 years. I still drive by the house and drool but it’s now about 30 years old, has had some owners who have kept it up better than others. Wood was not a good choice for southwest Louisiana and that house requires way more upkeep than I’d want now but I still love it.
Once I had quilted a quilt for a friend and when I showed it to Vince, he said “That’s so pretty! Why can’t you make a quilt like that?”
I said “I can! I did! I made the same quilt!” Our guild had done this as a group project. I retrieved my quilt to show him.
Clown Quilt
I could tell that he was struggling with expressing his thoughts. I said “What’s wrong? It’s the exact same quilt!” My friend had done hers in earth tones. Mine . . a little brighter!
Vince said “Can’t you make something and not use clown colors?” Clown colors? Was he referring to my bright colors?
The lady who owns the quilt shop that was near us in KY was a friend (she still is a friend) and I can look at my stack of quilts and know exactly which ones Betty helped with choosing colors. When making quilts for the books, I needed some variety and I would go to her and say “Choose colors for this quilt and pick something I would not pick”.
Twelve years ago, I made a quilt for an Army chaplain’s wife after hearing him speak on a talk radio show. I contacted him and asked him what colors his wife liked. He told me earth colors. I knew that was out of my hands so I went to Betty and these are the colors she chose.
Earth Colors
My sock drawers are full of bright colors. My quilts are bright colors. I love brights and am happiest when working with brights.
What about you? Brights or not? Have your tastes in colors changed through the years? Do you do more with the colors that are in style today or do you tick with the same colors through the years?
Mary Kunna says
I’m with you. Gotta have my bright, wild colors.
Swooze says
It will be interesting to see what others say. I just like what I like. I be used and continue to use all colors.
Swooze says
I’ve used…..
katie z. says
Bright most of the time, although I do stray into other tones. I do love monochromatic quilts, particularly blue/turquoise.
Moneik Stephens says
Lots and lots of purple. I do love brights, but I also use other combinations. I try to find things I think the recipient will like.
Laura says
I like what I call “happy colors.” Not necessarily bright, but definitely cheery. When I first started quilting, I used more earthy colors and more florals. Need to find a new home for those colors. 😉
Sue S says
I gravitate toward brights but I like pastels if they’re the true clear colors. Mint green, baby blue, as long as they’re not muddied with some darker tone. They need to pair better with white than they do with beige – I hope you know what I mean. No ambiguity! Purple must be purple!! I do like two color quilts like red and white or blue and white, or blue and green. I love black and white together, or B&W combined with any other bright color. I have tried to do earth tones or other combinations (esp. when sewing for others) but I don’t love them. My favorites are the ones you could have colored with the basic 8 colors from Crayola. BTW LOVE the house, even in lavender! I could get into gray if I lived there…
mkhquilts says
Fun question! When I was younger, I tended to go for rose, blue and gray. Now my favorite color is turquoise. I too love lots of color and a variety of fabrics in my quilts. Most of my quilts are scrappy or scrappy looking! I buy many remanants and fat quarters, and larger pieces only for backgrounds and borders.
Donna Minter says
I love them all. Most of my quilts are brights, but I would enjoy doing quilts in civil war fabrics, too. My favorite color to include in scrappy quilts is yellow. Makes the quilt “pop”.. And, your “clown” quilt is wonderful!
Anne says
I was taught quilting by a wonderful Mennonite gal. The first thing we made in class was a quilted table runner. I chose bright oranges, bright turquoises, purples and bright pinks and magenta. So it went with each thing we quilted, I picked bright colors and colors that weren’t traditionally put together! She told me several years later that she learned as much from me about colors and how to choose them from me as I learned about quilting from her. She and I are now sock knitting buddies even though she’s moved several states away. I just sent her some very bright colorful yarn to make her first pair of socks, she said her hubby said that they were Anne colors! LOVE LOVE LOVE bright cheerful and happy colors!
Kim Webb says
I love working with bright happy colors. Stopped at a quilt shop last week on vacation and while I was looking around my husband brought me a fat quarter bundle of bright batiks with polka dots and asked me if I could do something with it. Um, yes I think I can do that. I do like working with other fabrics as well, but the bright colors make me very happy.
quiltingholliday says
There is an expression “Be true to yourself” & I am. I’m not influenced much by “current colors” in quilting unless it’s the design of the fabric that appeals to me. I rather like all colors & when quilting I really like yellow & pink together. Somehow I don’t consider the brights you enjoy & use “clown colors” but consider them happy colors!
Sandy says
Give me brights any day of the week! They are my very favorite! But I do use other fabrics as well.
Joyce says
I like bright colors although I lean more toward pastels. I like blue/pink/purple/yellow/red but not so much green and orange. I’m not sure what I have against green and orange, but I don’t have much in either color.
Lynne in Hawaii says
Brights re my preference. I can do earth tones but not monochromatic quilts. Give me brights any day.
Paula Philpot says
I statted out only using reproduction 1930’s prints, I love patriotic, went thru a spell with Civil War Reproductions. Have liked cheddars for a few years and in the last couple years brights. and always scraps. Paula in KY
Linda in NE says
Oh, Lord! Vince called them “clown colors” and I have a story! I bought some tops on eBay and we all know things look better in pictures than in real life a lot of times. I showed them to my son, thinking I’d quilt & finish whichever one he liked best for him. As I showed them to him he was kind of “meh!” until I got to a VERY scrappy one with bright yellow setting and he said it looked like a clown had exploded on it. Your post reminded me of that episode.
JOYCE says
I love color, like to mix and do whatever I feel like at the time. I refuse anymore to make quilts for people in “their” colors. Chances are I will never finish it. I don’t work well with formulas either. Several years ago our group worked on a project where we all selected what we wanted but we had to pay attention to what the fabric was doing and use motion,and quiet movement. It was very instructive and I learned so much. I would like to sew but I have been asked to make a grey quilt for a baby. He’s born now and I have 6 blocks done. GREY for a baby? I hope I can get it done before he’s able to carry it around the house!
Lee Young says
I’m an earth-tones kind of gal. That’s mostly what you’ll find in my stash. But then there’s the 1930s repros that grab me too. I’ve also bee pulled out of my comfort zone with the color choices of certain popular gal that hosts an annual mystery quilt 😉 To accommodate a couple of those, I’ve had to purchase aqua/teal, lime/apple green and oranges. Few of those colors find there way into my stash by personal choice. Cracked me up when you said Vince referred to your brights as clown colors.
Barbara says
Love brightd
dezertsuz says
I LOVE brights, but somehow, I don’t often pick them. I don’t know why, but that’s how it is.
Rebecca in SoCal says
I admire and respect people who can make a compelling quilt from neutrals, but find it very difficult for myself. I tried to stay with a neutral palette for a class quilt once, but could not do it!
I sometimes feel unsophisticated in my color choices, but I still enjoy them. Like the first quilt I chose fabrics just for me…not bright, but they sure do make me happy. The only quilt hanging in my living room right now is brights! I do like brights.
I have been known to dislike brown as “not really a color.” That hasn’t changed, and my least favorite color is orange. I remember a teacher saying that dislike of a color is often not knowing how to use it, and have seen orange used very effectively. But still…
Bon says
I prefer brights but the last quilt I made for me was earth tones and I really like it.
wanda j says
This quilt has always been my favorite one of all. I love bright colors so why be dull I say. Live life to fullest and enjoy the brightness of colors. I really really dislike black but is is necessary sometimes. But give me yellow, red, blue, green or and yes orange and purple and I’m in love. Fall colors are pretty too. But bright is for us hot weather people just look at south of the border. Hot bright colors. Yeppie. I love the socks with bright colors too they are my favorite I love those last ones.
Pamj in Texas says
Always Bright !!! Every time I’ve tried to do colors I don’t particularly like, I have to almost beat myself to finish. Turquoise, lime green, hot pink, yellow are my tendencies!!
Deb S says
Most of my quilts are bright batiks, and usually on a darker background. I just love how the bright colors pop against the dark. My brothers wife wanted a quilt … and they were very country …. wanted country colors, dark rust, browns blahs….. I did it, but I wasn’t happy the entire time working on it. It was probably one of the fastest quilts I finished though – because I didn’t want it hanging around !
Dar in MO says
I’m in the “brights camp” too. I do so many scrap quilts, that all of the colors get used at some point, but the highlights or borders or something in the block will have to be brights to make it more interesting. I’m with Rebecca on her thoughts of browns. I’ve seen some great looking brown, taupe, neutral quilts, but as a rule, I would never set out to make one from my stash because there would not be enough brown in it to make a full quilt.!