Quilt Artists Guide to Color

Class Preview

Learn to harness the energy of color so you can make beautiful, interesting and successful quilts, art, jewelry and more.

Why Study Color Theory?

Quilt artist Heather Thomas introduces you to the system of interacting color. Using a selection of small quilts and other artwork, Heather begins an exploration of the color wheel, the color scale, visual and tactile textures, value, intensity, saturation, visual temperature and more. She will also show you some tools to have on hand that will make learning about color easier and talk about how to set up your creative space and how to arrange you color media, be it fabric, beads, paint etc., so that it is easy to see and use.

The Color Wheel & Color Scale

Heather shows you how most color wheels are organized. She will help you understand how all colors are formed from the primary colors of red, yellow and blue as she introduces the idea of secondary and tertiary colors. At the same time she will teach you all about the color scale, which includes color in its pure hue, tints, tones and shades.

The Value of Value, Inherent & Relative

This lesson is about that overused and often misunderstood word; value. Heather will instruct you how to paint out or use fabric to create value scales as you learn how the inherent value of a color affects how it works in combination with other colors.

Texture, Print & Raising Surface

This lesson is all about visual and tactile texture and learning how to use them to create movement, rhythm, surface tension, dominance and so much more. Heather will help you understand how what is printed on the surface of a fabric or its visual texture, can affect the piece and in turn the viewer.

All About the 12 Colors

Here is where the fun begins. In this session, Heather will introduce you to the 12 colors in the color system. You will create color scales for each one using paint or fabric.

The Interaction of Color

To help you understand how colors play off of and with each other, Heather will guide you through some exercises: working with neutrals, monochromatic play, exploring direct complements, working with complex complements, using analogous runs, playing with triads and creating with tetrads.

Principles of Design

In this final lesson, Heather will introduce you to the idea of working toward a sense of balance in each new piece you create. She will show you how color can come into play as you are striving to create a balanced and unified piece of work and how you can use value and color scale to increase variety.

Meet Your Instructor

Learn more about your instructor, Heather Thomas.