Colour Intensive

I thought I knew a lot about colour from my photography.  I knew about the colour wheel and primary, secondary, complimetary and analgous colours.  I knew about colour spaces and calibration, from camera, to computer, to monitor, to printer, but colour theory for fabric has whole lot more going on.  One colour, just the wrong tone, can throw off a design and make a quick trip to the quilt shop, become an hour of hunting through bolts to find the one or two fabrics that work.  So in order to expand my comfort level with colour in the quilting world, I signed up to Stitched in Color's online class Color Intensive.

It's a 5 week class working through theory, palettes, some practical projects like a tote bag and there's even a quilt pattern.  I had taken Rachel's Penny Sampler class and I am still working on this quilt design with applique, paper piecing and precise piecing.  I loved this class and I'm so happy with the quilt in progress that I had no hesitation in signing up for another of Rachel's classes. 

To prepare for the class Rachel offered a Kona Colour Card project.  The idea is to take the little colour swatches and add velcro to them to allow a side by side comparison of the chips (without having to play twister with the original card) or to lay the chips against a background fabric or prints in order to pull out the colours or tones to compliment a colour scheme.  Coincidently I had bought a Kona Card just before Christmas so this week I've been drawing a grid on some neutral grey card and I've started chopping up the little colour patches.

As they are so pretty in their original form and useful in this layout of tones, warm & cool etc.  we are keeping them in the original order on the card.  This is how far I've gotten:

I can see a whole lot of cutting this weekend to fill this in.  I'm thinking a movie and glass of vino will make this an enjoyable task.  We start on Monday so there is still time to sign up if you are interested in practicing your colour skills or expanding your colour knowledge!