How to Add Pops of Color to your Quilt: Part 2

January 16, 2018

I travel all over the country teaching, and a question I get asked a lot is HOW do I add a pop of color to my quilt? How do I know which color to choose for the pop?

I LOVE adding a pop of color to my quilts-- it adds so much interest to the entire quilt. There are lots of different ways that I like to add a pop of color, so I decided to explore those in this mini-series.

Last week we learned about the Analogous Pop of Color, this week we are going to talk about what I call the Complementary Pop of Color. This pop is even poppier (definitely just made up that word, but go with me...). The Analogous Pop we talked about last week keeps the quilt looking calm and harmonious while adding just a bit more interest. Today's pop is more playful and surprising!

The Complementary Pop of Color

To review, a Complementary Color Palette contains colors that are opposite one another on the color wheel. (You can learn more about complementary palettes here.)

Colors that are opposite one another on the color wheel are as different as you can get. They share no colors in common, and because of that they can really make each other stand out. Pink will look MOST pink when next to green. Blue will look most blue when paired with orange. So choosing a complementary color for your pop will make that pop really...pop!

SO to insert a Complementary Pop, simply start with a monochromatic or an analogous palette (as you can see below, I started with blues and aquas, and to keep it interesting, I varied the values of those blues and aquas, including lights and darks.)

Then I chose a color opposite blue and aqua on the color wheel -- orange! Don't get too hung up on making sure your pop is exactly opposite on the color wheel, just jump across the color wheel and pick a color you think looks good. I like to distribute the pops relatively evenly across the quilt.

The lovely thing about this trick is that you now automatically have both warm and cool colors in your quilt, which will make it look balanced and dynamic.