Orange is one of my favorite colours. I use it often in my quilts/ quilt blocks. It is so versatile and my favorite way of using it is as a pop to add visual interest.

Here are some examples on how I have used orange with a current fabric mosaic.

Orange

The trick with using all one color (ie. Monochromatic) is making sure you have variation, which can be achieved with different volumes (inside square high volume, outside low volume), or with various shades of the same color.

Tip for Monochromatic: Try using a camera and taking a black and white photo to see if you have enough variation in your fabric selections. You should see a gradation.

1. Lizzie House ; 2. Carolyn Friedlander; 3. Frances Newcombe; 4. Alison Glass; 5. Anna Maria Horner; 6. Denyse Schmidt; 7. Downton Abbey; 8. V & Co. ; 9. Leah Duncan

Orange + Warm

The other option to add depth and using orange, is to use other warmer colors (ie. An Analogous color palette). My current WiP was based on orange but I found I needed more depth so I added purples, magenta, yellow and coral/peach.

I find the Analogous color palette one of the easiest to do as the colors are in the same “family” or part of the color wheel so they always seem to work, no matter what print you use.

With this palette purple does stand out better than the orange due to its darkness, so you may choose to drop that. For my purposes it worked well.

1. Carolyn Friedlander; 2. Karen Lewis; 3. Tula Pink; 4. Lizzie House; 5. Rashida Coleman Hale; 6. Katrina Roccella; 7. Leah Duncan; 8. Lizzie House; 9. Sarah Jane

When using a warm palette, but very vibrant versions of pink and orange, what about thinking of adding balance with neutrals like white and grey.

Orange + Neutrals

I use orange and neutrals a lot together, as this gives orange the role as a focus color. You don’t have to use a lot of color with neutrals for this to be true. Play around with solid greys, whites and blacks; featured here are all Kona cottons (First print: Titanium, Torch, Pepper, Shadow; Second Print: White, Torch, Oyster, Putty, Shadow).

The main print in this next example is by Yoshiko Jinzenji for Yuwa Fabric. The grey, oyster and navy blue print (that appears black) are Karen Lewis hand printed fabrics. I love that pop of colour among the neutrals for visual interest and draws your eye into the quilt.

Orange + Blues

With this example,  I used mostly blues but wanted to add a pop on the edges. I tried Teal, aqua and blue but landed up deciding that the orange was a perfect complement  to the extreme blue palette.

This works as it is loosely based on a triadic (complementary) color palette but I dropped the green that would be included.

1. Carolyn Friedlander; 2. Cotton + Steel; 3. Jeni Baker; 4. Karen Lewis

Monthly Tip

If you are unsure about building a color palette and you don’t want to stick with using a fabric line….What about choosing a print you like and build a bundle based on the colors available in that print (check out the dots on the selvedges). Here are a couple of examples using Anna Maria Horner fabrics and the palette builder tool for the Kona cotton palette.

Monthly Resources

Book:  Quilt Color Workshop – Creative Color Combinations for Quilters

Website: Canva Color Theory

Tool: Play Crafts Palette Builder

Give-away Winner

 Winner of the prize this month is Debbie from Sheltered Stitches. Debbie I will email you shortly with the details of your prize.

Next Month….Yellow

Note, that all the projects provided in this post are my own unless noted. If there is something you would like more information on or if you would like to provide feedback on what you want to see more of please leave a comment. This blog series is developing and I am happy to change it up to accommodate more information.