Heaven is declaring God’s glory; the sky is proclaiming his handiwork. Psalms 19: 1
When I first started quilting, most of the quilting fabrics were “calicos” and solids. There were few “quilt” shops (I don’t think I saw a single one until I was well into quilting and that was in an Amish area almost 2 hours away). The big box fabric stores did not have aisle after aisle of fabrics organized by color. There definitely were not many collections and colorways to help with your fabric choices, and for the most part I used fabrics that were left from other sewing projects.
So… if you are not an art major, how do you pick colors that will look good together when you are finished? I think the best advice I ever received on this subject is this: Look to God’s creation. In my early days, I would not have considered putting a vivid red and a vivid purple together, and definitely would not have put green in the mix. But look at the poppies on my first blog. How beautiful they are! All red and purple, against a background of green! The green makes the red “pop” because your brain cannot register red and green at the same time. Consider the salmon, blue, and purples in the sky in this sunrise against the black background. Wouldn’t either of these palettes make for a beautiful quilt?
Or consider the beautiful colors of a different sunrise: the soft pastel peaches, yellows, blues, pinks, and lavenders! If you happen to be as fortunate as I am, you may even have a golden field of wheat below them to accent all of it. Or how about the colors of autumn? Or the colors of the rainbow? Or the colors of the beach: the water, sand, birds, and seafoam? Then there are the mountains… or a bouquet delivered by the florist… or a snowy day with blue jays and cardinals and the scarf of the snowman… I am sure you have the idea. Look around you. Color is everywhere. When you see something that registers as “I love that!” or “That is beautiful!” consider snapping a picture and capturing those colors in your next quilt!