Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Class of Color


Last night I took a class on color at The Patched Works. Color 101. It was presented by Amy of Blue Underground. She and her partners design quilt patterns. She was an excellent teacher and fun, too.
I needed this class. Sometimes I find a fabric and am then at a loss. Or, I think I find what I like and by the time I purchase all of the fabric, with the help of the quilt ladies, end up with something different and much, much better. They are much better at seeing which color/fabric goes or adds to other colors/fabrics. Of course, that's their jobs, but I can be very intimidated by this process.
Amy gave a lot of suggestions on how to look at color that I was impressed with. Now, I do see color in nature. I love looking at trees and seeing the hundred different shades of green or looking at a lake and seeing all the different shades of blue. Out in nature I can see all different shades, patterns and textures that work together. Color is a wonderful thing I think most of us take for granted. I believe I am good at "seeing" color. It is just picking it out in fabric that can drive me bonkers.
One suggestion Amy made that I am going to try is to sit down with a picture (of a drawing, advertisement, piece of art) and a color wheel and place a dot on the color wheel for each color I see. Amy had several examples and they were really impressive. I can see where this exercise would be very helpful in learning about shades and hues.
Amy also brought along tons of quilts to use as examples for her collection. That was interesting and fun. Those quilts were gorgeous. There were a quite a few I would have liked to tuck in my purse and taken home! LOL And, there were some I didn't care for. But, each example showed different techniques of color usage. Amy stress that it is OK to mix fabrics, too, which I am slowing learning on my own.
It was a fun evening. There were a lot of nice ladies in the class - many of them "newbie" quilters like me.
Learning more about color is something I would like to explore more now that I've taken Amy's class. That says a lot about the teacher! Thanks, Amy! And, thanks to The Patched Works for offering the class!


1 comment:

sewprimitive karen said...

Oh, I wish I could have taken that class. I love to hear people talk about color and picking fabrics. Mary Ellen has a class on that at Little Quilts, but I've already taken it ha!