Off the Bookshelf—Color Confidence for Quilters

After posting Choosing Fabrics for the Next Quilt, it seems an appropriate time for a review of Color Confidence for Quilters by Jinny Beyer. I actually took the class from Jinny in 1996 in Lyon, France at the Quilt Expo. She was really great. Don’t worry if you can’t get to the workshop in person though, because her book is extremely thorough. As I mentioned in my previous post about choosing fabrics, I was already choosing fabrics and colors in much the same way she does before I took her class or read her book. However, after absorbing her method, my own system was much improved thanks to her exercises and tips. Essentially, her book (and related workshops or videos) introduces you to her method of color and fabric selection through exercises using fabric swatches from her Palette collection of fabrics. Jinny shows you how to blend colors to create an exciting palette, so that you can use any colors together in a quilt without regard for, or knowledge of, color theory. She also tells you what the three ingredients for a successfull color scheme are, and how to include them in your quilt. By the way, her method is not just for quilters, but is wonderful for any project that uses color: knitting, scrapbooking, interior decorating, painting or anything else. You don’t even have to have her fabric swatches to do the exercises, as there are pictures on color plates in the back of the book which can be cut out and used again and again. Get her book, and learn to see colors in a new way.

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