JWD Publishing Blog

As promised last week, here is a small group of quilts that use the green and blue analogous color plan to create their designs. Each is quite different in design and color use. I have featured a quilt by Margarete Steinhauer from Estes Park, Colorado and one by Jane Hall from Raleigh, North Carolina. I love both of their quilts and I hope you will too. There are two additional images in this post, both showing analogous colorings in this selected blue-green range. If you are a lover of blues and greens, perhaps you have made your own quilts with this color combination. It’s a beautiful color span to work with and it’s probably the most popular color combination. Enjoy!

Tsunami by Margarete Steinhauer, Estes Park, Colorado

In Tsunami, the subtle color changes appear to move from chartreuse to turquoise—–and  perhaps a smattering of cerulean blue too. Besides the beautiful color blends, this is a masterpiece in design. Margarete’s use of line, direction, color, and texture make this a stunning design. Tsunami was created in 2006. It is 43″ x 41″.  By the way, this quilt is featured on its own page in my new book Adventures in Design. I guess you can tell that I absolutely love this quilt!  I am simply spellbound by it. (Photo by Joe Ofia, Arlington, Massachusetts)

Chroma III: Vinifera by Jane Hall,  Raleigh, North Carolina

Chroma III: Vinifera is another beautiful example of an analogous color plan. It moves from blue-green through the blues and on to violet. This is one of my favorite quilts of Jane’s. As you can see, Jane used a Pineapple Log Cabin block to create this design. The moving of subtle colors in this technique is no small feat. It totally amazes me (great job, Jane!).  Jane is one of the premier experts in Pineapple Log Cabin quilts.  In this quilt, notice how Jane’s floating border reiterates the colors in the body of the quilt and the border’s curves repeat the shapes of the pineapple design. This repetition brings wonderful continuity to the quilt. The quilting is exquisitely done. Jane is the author of several quilting books. Chroma III: Vinifera was made in 1993. It is 52″ square. (Photo by  Ken Wagner, Seattle, Washington)

Reflections on the Pond

Reflections on the Pond is a quilt I made with an analogous range that uses colors from one half of the color wheel.  The range begins with splashes of yellow and moves around the greens and blues and ends with bits of violet. This is a contemporary variation of a Trip around the World design with a smattering of half-square triangles placed in the central area. I used several blender fabrics—-fabrics that include more than one color. Because of the close merging of colors, these blender fabrics had to be very closely related in their multi-use of colorings. This is a very simple quilt, technically. My interest was in playing with colors that felt like they could be part of a garden scene reflecting into a pond. It was really fun to watch the quilt take shape as I selected fabrics from my stash—and great to use some of those stash fabrics! (If you are interested, Reflections on the Pond has been made into a pattern.)  (Photo by Ken Wagner, Seattle, Washington)

Detail of top part of Northern Lights

This image is a detail of my quilt Northern Lights. This detail shows the close-up movement of analogous colors from a greenish yellow through a variety of greens, blues, and a bit into the violet spectrum. When selecting my fabrics I wasn’t trying to be exacting in color movement. The hues did not have to be equal distances apart. I just wanted a feeling of flowing color that seemingly moved subtly through the color range in a leisurely manner. My stash really dictated how  the colors flowed in this quilt, as almost all of the fabrics I used were from my stash. (it’s surprising how that works!). I’ll show more of this quilt at another time when we’re discussing another topic. As you can tell, this quilt is a modern variation of a Rail Fence design. (If you are curious to see the entire quilt, you can go to the Northern Lights pattern page.)

I hope you enjoyed these four diverse quilt images illustrating the green/blue analogous color plan (with some stretching here and  there). Thanks Margarete and Jane for sharing your quilts. In our next post, we are going to go down a completely different pathway.  See you soon.

Happy coloring!

© Joen Wolfrom

Joen is a color enthusiast who teaches and lectures on color. She has written three color books: Color Play, Visual Coloring, and The Magical Effects of Color. Her Studio Color Wheel is used to illustrate color concepts in many of these blog posts. She is also the designer of the 3-in-1 Color Tool. Her new book Adventures in Design is now available. Joen’s newest design tool, the Magic Design-Ratio Tool has just been released. All books and products are published by C & T Publishing.