Using Light-Dark Color Combinations in Quilts

Make Pleasing Color Schemes by Mixing Fabrics with Different Values

Sep 23, 2009

Learn how using a mixture of both light and dark fabrics helps create quilts with color combinations that please the eye.

Understanding the concept of color value can help quilters learn to combine fabrics to make quilts with a satisfying sense of visual balance, a “rightness” that everyone can see, even if most people don’t understand the color theory behind it.

A basic knowledge of value will help you become more confident in choosing colors for your quilts, for other sewing projects, and for your home décor.

Color Value Measures a Color’s Brightness or Darkness

When you work with fabric colors, the word “value” refers to the brightness or darkness of a particular color. The more white a color contains, the higher its value and the more light and airy it looks in a quilt. The more black a color contains, the lower its value and the richer and deeper it looks in a quilt.

Color Mixing with White and Black Creates Tints and Shades

The 24 primary and secondary colors on the color wheel are called pure hues. Every color on the wheel can be lightened by combining it with white, or darkened by combining it with black. The resulting color mixtures are called tints and shades.

Some of the pure hues – yellow, orange, yellow-green, and green, for instance – are inherently bright. Other pure hues – red-purple, purple, and blue-purple, for instance – are naturally darker and heavier looking. This built-in value affects how the colors look when they are combined with fabrics of other colors. Learn more about basic color theory for sewing and quilting.

Color Combinations that Work Include Both Lights and Darks

The balance of light and dark in a quilt has a big impact on the way people respond to it. A color scheme that uses too many dark fabrics can give a quilt a heavy look and make any piecing or appliqué designs hard to see. Using too many pale fabrics together can make the quilt seem bland and uninteresting. A quilt that contains mostly fabrics from the middle of the value scale – neither pale nor dark – can look monotonous and out of focus. The trick is to create color schemes that blend both high and low value colors to give the quilt contrasts that make it visually interesting but not overwhelming.

Light-Dark Color Combinations Can Excite or Soothe the Eye

Always consider how a quilt will be used before you choose a color palette for your design. High-contrast fabric combinations are exciting to look at, but they can be visually tiring too. A black-and-white color scheme could make a bold statement on a living room wall, but be too exciting for a child’s bedroom. To create a calm feeling, use a more limited range of values. For a sense of richness and motion, use a broader range of values.

Use a Design Wall to Test Fabric Color Schemes

The best way to decide whether a particular set of fabric colors work together is to put them together and just leave them there for a few days to let them grow on you (or not!) It’s surprising how much the perceived value of a color can change when it is viewed together with other colors.

If you have a quilt design wall, put swatches of the fabrics you are considering up on the wall together for a day or two. For complex quilts that include lots of small pieces, it may be a good idea to make a test block so you can see the fabrics together in the precise combination that will appear in the finished quilt. Put the block on the design wall or on a flat, neutral-colored surface for viewing. Your initial reaction may change as your mind has a chance to absorb the colors together.

Testing various light-dark combinations will give you a sense of what level of color contrast feels comfortable in your quilts.

The quilts shown at the bottom of the page were all displayed at the 2009 Quilting in the Garden show at Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore, California. From left to right, they are:

The copyright of the article Using Light-Dark Color Combinations in Quilts in Quilting is owned by Christine Mann. Permission to republish Using Light-Dark Color Combinations in Quilts in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.