How to Teach the Use of a Color Wheel to Select Fabric

When working with fabrics for any project from decorating a home to making quilts, it never hurts to understand the color wheel. The color wheel can be used as a guide to finding colors which blend or complement each other to achieve the look you want. To teach the use of a color wheel to select fabric, you'll want to make sure you have a color wheel on hand.

Things You'll Need

• Color wheel

Instructions

1. Look over the color wheel with your students to note the primary colors which include red, blue and yellow. Point out to the students the sections of the color wheel which sit equally in between the primary colors. These colors (purple, orange, and green) are secondary colors. Tertiary colors are those that rest between a primary and secondary color, such as blue-green, or red-orange.

2. Go over how the wheel works in relation to coordinating fabrics with other fabrics or with furnishings and wall paints. An analogous color scheme would consist of selecting three or four of the colors from the wheel which all rest side by side, such as blue, blue-green, and green. Analogous fabrics and color palettes can have a pleasing affect.

3. Have students look across from a color of their choice to find the complimentary color on the wheel. Red is across from green, blue sits across from orange, and so on. Blending together fabrics with complimentary colors can offer more contrast or visual pop.

4. Let the students consider how some colors will overpower others when paired together as they select fabrics. For example, red will overpower green, so depending on the look they are going for, less red than green can be used for a more balanced look, or use equal or larger amounts of red for a bigger impact.

5. Encourage the students to not only use the color wheel as they select their fabrics, but also teach them to recognize how pairings and mixtures of colors that suit their tastes already align with the color wheel. While one student will enjoy calm analogous mixtures, another may truly delight in using heavy contrast of complimentary colors with the overpowering fabrics playing center stage.

Tips & Warnings

• Once an understanding of the color wheel is in place you can begin to look at the different shades and tones of colors and explore the options of using monochromatic themes in fabric choices as well.

• When you teach about the color wheel it never hurts to have some fabric samples on hand of solids or small patterns which read as solids from a few feet away.

References

• "Quilter's Compete Guide"; Marianne Fons & Liz Porter; 2000
• "Color Magic for Quilters: Absolutely the Easiest, Most Successful Method for Choosing Colors and Fabrics to Create Quilts You'll Love"; Ann Seely, Joyce Stewart; 1997