Color Theory - Guide To Creating Color Palettes

{Hello! Thrilled to have Erin from Sew at Home Mummy back with us today to share more color inspiration tips. Earlier this month she shared Inspiration Board, and showcased a gorgeous color-of-the-year inspired collection of emerald goodness. She's here again today sharing more color palette tools & ideas and why quilters/sewers/designers might want to take hold of these opportunities to explore colors. She inspired me to create this little graphic above with some of her chosen hues...}

Color Palettes

More and more now I’m relying on creating color palettes as a jumping-off point for my sewing projects, especially given the fact I’m starting to use more and more solids – which, for me, is more difficult to pair with one another given that you don’t have a patterned fabric as a starting point or reference.

My favorite online tool for creating a complete color palette is called www.colourlovers.com. 

The user can upload an image and create a color palette by selecting colors within the photo. You can then save the customized color palette, and download the image to your desktop for further use. This app is a lot of fun to play with – upload any photo and have an amazing inspirational palette in minutes.

Another favorite online color palette tool is from Design Seeds. Adjust an RGB scale and palettes are automatically brought up for you. You can also search by themes such as seasons, plant life, and vintage categories (to name a few).

I played with the RGB scale a bit to generate an emerald search and here’s the palette the site came up with for me:

I thought it would be fun to create and share a collection of fabrics with you based around the color ‘emerald’, and using one of these color palette building tools as inspiration. I chose to go with the ColourLovers palette I created as a starting point, and here’s what I came up with:

Palette: 

Curated Bundle: 

From top left: Notting Hill Tartan (Joel Dewberry); Simply Color Lime Ombre (V and Co.); Flea Market Fancy Medallion (Denyse Schmidt); Kona Daffodil; Mod Prints Maze in Lagoon (Michael Miller); Kona Willow; Oval Elements in Emerald Coast (Pat Bravo); Kona Everglade; Lavinia – Honore in Mint (Michael Miller)

Now – what about a bundle combining both inspirational palettes, in all solids? 

From top left: Kona Willow (Robert Kaufman), Riley Blake Jade (Riley Blake Designs), Kona Daffodil (RK), Kona Coffee (RK), Kona Mulberry (RK), Kona Petunia (RK), Riley Blake Barn Door (RBD), Bella Blush (moda), Kona Woodrose (RK)

As the modern quilting movement gains increasing popularity, and we start working with solids more exclusively, quilters may need to become more cognisant of new trends in color and in how to apply those trends to the composition of their quilts. The nature of working with more solids or solids as a primary fabric within our quilts means we don’t always have that ‘focal’ patterned fabric we used as a ‘jumping off’ point – the fabric we paired all other secondary pieces with. Because of this, as we work with simpler “basics” fabrics such as solids the color pairing and matching will fall more in our own hands rather than in the fabric designer’s of patterned fabrics, as we the quilter take the visionary role from color selection, fabric pairings through to quilt composition.

Using trends such as the Color of the Year in conjunction with color palette tools will no doubt make for some very modern quilting, with almost unlimited possibilities.

Erin Davis

Sew at Home Mummy

-------> Thank you for welcoming Erin! We'd love to hear your thoughts about these color tools and ideas.

Color Study: Emerald - Guest Post

{Hello! So excited to have Erin from Sew At Home Mummy here to share her a bit of background about Pantone's color of the year, Emerald, along with a super cool inspiration site.  Erin is so sweet & chock full of information and ideas, she'll be back in a few weeks to share even more color goodness. Thank you so much for welcoming her here today!} 

You’ve probably heard a lot of buzz about the color ‘emerald’ and how this year, it’s the color of the year. 

Who comes up with the color every year? Who makes that all important decision which will set the tone (mind the pun) for the interior design, beauty, and fashion industries? And how and why do ‘they’ choose what color will be the go-to for the year?

The answer? The company ‘Pantone’.

Pantone has been the world’s color authority for almost 50 years, providing products and services to design professionals such as custom colors, swatches, chips, trend forecasts, software, color measurement systems and more. The company’s color swatches have become the standard reference guide, allowing designers to "color match" specific colors when a design enters production stage, regardless of the equipment used to produce the color.

But - how do they decide which color will be the “it” color for any given year?

Pantone takes their influences on their decision for Color of the Year from many sources – entertainment, films in production, art collections, sports events, technology, travel destinations, socio-economic conditions, etc. Twice a year the company hosts a secret meeting of representatives from various nations' color standards groups; these representatives present and deliberate for two days...and at the end of it all come up with “The Color of the Year”.

Today I thought I would share an online app that help to get me inspired when I’m trying to decide what my color palette for the quilt I’m planning will take on. And, of course, these are “Emerald” themed inspirations in the spirit of the post topic. 

Inspiration
From www.theinspirationboard.com – a free app where you can create your own inspiration board in minutes. I highly recommend you try it – it’s pretty neat! My color of the year inspired board (above) took me about 10 minutes to create the board, and really got me in the ‘emeraldy’ mood. The app is easy to use – it requires that you register a username and password, and once you’re done creating your inspiration board you can share it through any social media you can think of with one click of a button. There are fun custom add-ons like push pins, backgrounds, frames and more. This app will be fun to play with in conjunction with your Pinterest pins! 


Loving all this information + inspiration, thank you Erin! 

You can catch up with her & see her gorgeous work on her blog, Sew At Home Mummy and when she returns in a few weeks to share even more color inspiration. 








image credits:
swatches from pantone.com

inspiration board: emerald doors, wedding cake, earrings, emerald stone, sailed ship, shoes ,  chair, nail polish, pillow, lamp  

Color Lovin' - Pantone Spring 2013 Color Report

Gotta love this time of year; back to school, crisp mornings, and Pantone's color report! 

Definitely building upon this year's Tangerine Tango - I adore the Nectarine. Also love the Monaco and Lemon Zest.  Looks like gray is sort of blending into colors a bit with the Jade, Violet, and Dusk Blue. Hmmm, not sure how I feel about that. 

What's your favorite? How do you see yourself wearing it? 

I also love how I inadvertently tapped into some of these colors with my Carlsbad fabrics...

Can you see the nectarine, dusk, linen, and tender shoots?!  Thank you again for all the kind words with my designs, already planning my next giveaway! 

xo