Choosing Colour Concepts for Quilts

One of the most exciting parts of quilting is how colour can transform a single pattern into something entirely unique. Depending on the fabrics and palette you choose, the same design can look bold and modern, soft and pastel, or rich and traditional. That’s the beauty of playing with colour. It lets you customise every quilt to your personal style, your home décor, or even just your mood.

From sticking to multiple tones of a single colour, to experimenting with warm vs cool palettes, to exploring timeless blue-and-white quilts or the ever-popular rainbow, there are plenty of colour concepts you can use to guide your fabric pulls. Each approach creates cohesion in its own way whether through tone, theme, or contrast and gives your quilt that polished, intentional look.

If you’ve got a favourite colour, you can easily make a stunning quilt from one colour that doesn’t look too same-same. The secret is to choose multiple tones of one colour. My daughter once told me: “My favourite colour is purple, and my second favourite is light purple, and my third favourite is dark purple”. The kid was onto something – when you mix tones, you get depth and interest that you don’t get when choosing too many fabrics in the same value.

Choosing a concept to link your fabric choices will create cohesion. For example, go pastel, or primary, or jewel toned. You can mix a variety of colours together and know that they’ll work together, because they’re similar shades. Whether a colour ispure (primary colours), pastel (mixed with white), or jewel or muddy tones (mixed with black) will determine how it looks, and making sure all your colours are similarly shaded makes them work together.

The example quilts here – Fantastic Slides Quilt and Peachy Keen Quilt featured in Make Modern Issue #62.

Is there anything more classic than a blue and white quilt? Except maybe a red and white quilt? There’s a reason why these are perennial favourites, because they just work well. Again, it’s a case of taking your favourite colour and adding a heavy dose of white to create a strong accent (you could choose black instead for a completely different look). A large variety of fabrics in a single colour is unified by the use of white.

We first learned about warm and cool colours way back in kindergarten, and they’re still a design favourite. Mixing warm and cool colours creates a contrast that always works. Adding a neutral background colour is a classic way to let the fabrics shine,.

Did I save the MM personal favourite for last? Perhaps, because rainbows always feel like dessert to me. If you love all the colours, the cohesiveness of the old classic rainbow order colour scheme is a winning way to present it. Fun and fresh, rainbows never fail to delight. They’re perfect for kids quilts, but there are plenty of adults who love a good rainbow too. They’re the perfect option for showcasing favourite prints in a variety of colourways. Twirlyis a classic rainbow quilt that is sure to delight! Again, black and white accents break up the boldness of the colour scheme.

Choosing colours doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. With a few tried-and-true formulas, you can take the guesswork out of fabric selection and start building colour stories that truly shine in your quilts. Colour is one of the most powerful tools in your creative process, and the more you practice with it, the more confident you’ll become. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Sometimes the most unexpected combinations create the most striking results. At the end of the day, your quilt should reflect your personality and bring you joy every time you see it.

This is an edited excerpt from Jane Kelly’s original piece Hand Sewing. Read the full article in Make Modern Issue #62.

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