How to Use a Color Wheel For Quilting

The word intensity is another word that we can use to describe some of the characteristics of color. Some of us are familiar with the color wheel, but most of us really are unsure about what we're actually seeing. When we look at this color wheel, which is made out of fabric and mostly quilting fabrics, the outer circle here are the pure hues. They are the most intense form of color. The row inside are the shades. Black has been added, and they're less intense than the pure hue. In the centermost area, we have tints. White has been added, and they're less intense than the pure hue. This row right here, however, is the least intense. It is filled with tones. Gray has been added or the color's direct complement has been added, which really depletes the color of its power, its visual power, its energy. So we have high-intense colors in pure hue, very low with tones, and mid-intensity with shades and tints. We can really see this when we do it in a quilt, when we put this color in and we mix the intensities. This quilt has a very soft palette. However, some of the fabrics are softer than others. The background is the lowest intense area. Very, very toned tints. So is the inner border, because we include gray and a pale, pale golden yellow. The flowers themselves, the blue petals, and the outer borders have a mid-intensity. It's the white of the flowers, the inside there that has the highest intensity. White is the closest color to pure light, and it has more intensity than any other. Now, this other quilt is filled with lots of bold, bright, pure hues. However, I've separated those pure hues with a dull, dull black. Black is the second dullest color, gray being the absolute dullest color. It is this black that really kind of helps to control, if you will, the brightness or intensity of all the rest of the colors in the quilt. Choosing colors based on their intensity can really help us make very dynamic quilts. Choosing the wrong intensity can make us have quilts that just end up not what we wanted at all. So pay attention to the intensity or the purity of your colors the next time you're choosing fabrics, and you'll get the result that you're looking for.