Colour wheel

By Spotlight

A colour wheel enables you to see how colours work together: the primary colours - red, blue and yellow, secondary colours - orange, green and violet, and complementary colours that sit opposite each other on the colour wheel such as red-green, orange - blue and yellow - violet. The colour wheel shows where the colour ranges merge; the warm colours - reds and purples - and the cool colours - blues and greens. It helps you confidently choose colours that work well together in your quilt so the overall effect will be aesthetically pleasing!

Final Result

Materials

Colour wheel

Step 1

How to use your colour wheel:

Place colour wheel right side up on fabric so it shows through the window. Select the shade around the window which is the closest to your sample.

Step 2

Point the indicator to choose the combination:

Complementary - Colours opposite each other on the colour wheel.

Split Complementary - Colours on both sides of and including complementary colours.

Triad - Three colours equally spaced from one another.

Tetrad - A contrast of four or more colours equally spaced around the colour wheel.

Step 3

Select colours that will work well together. Confirm your choice by placing the colour wheel right side up on your samples. Choose colours with the same shade letter.

The Tonal Estimator is a tool made from red acrylic that lets you look at fabric and see only its lightness or darkness. Place it up to your eye and look through to see whether your fabrics are light, medium or dark. The right values can make a quilt shine while the wrong values make the quilt look flat. It is the most important part of selecting fabrics.

Handy Hint

The best way to see if your combination of fabrics will work is to place them on a flat surface, step back and view from a distance. What looked wrong up close may be perfect from a distance.

Handy Hint

Some fabrics have a colour swatch along the selvedge showing the colours used in the fabric. Cut this off and take it when you are trying to match the colour in a fabric.