Splendid colour tips for quilting: Orange in quilts

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When you know the importance of value contrast in a quilt, the next step is to think about colours and colour contrast.

In this post, I share my thoughts on orange as a colour in quilts. I’ll share tips on what to watch out for and on how to consciously use the orange colour for effect.
In colour psychology, orange represents friendliness, excitement, and creativity. It can spark people into action. You have probably noticed that the ”buy” and ”subscribe” buttons on websites are orange – and it is exactly because orange is more likely to make you click.

What to beware when using orange in a quilt?

Orange is a high-visibility colour, and it attracts attention. Orange and blue are colour opposites: a pure orange (a product of red and yellow) and pure blue have no common colour base. A vivid orange and blue will be likely to give a glaring effect when placed next to each other.

On a quilt surface, placing yellows or reds next to oranges will not necessarily create value contrast even though those fabrics might look different to the eye. You can see the lack of value contrast on the left-hand side of the block on the left:
Orange together with too many other colours may be too much. Orange, pink, red, brown, and even a blue-tinted fabric together proved to be too heavy a combination after all. This beginning never got an ending, even though I had a vision that inspired me.

How to use orange successfully in a quilt surface

Orange does go well with reds (and even pinks). For example, I started the whole design of the "Sixten" quilt by colouring in where I wanted to place orange-yellow pieces. At that time, I was not even certain that I would have enough orange fabrics in my stash! (Although I was not surprised to actually find quite a number of different oranges there…)
The small quilted "Sounds" / "Ääniä" zipper pouch features oranges, reds, and yellows – and hardly any other colours.
Orange areas will stand out even in an extremely multicoloured surface. You can see how noticeable the orange strips are in the "Goodwill Among Neighbours" / "Naapurisopu" quilt, can’t you?
Orange fabrics will easily spice up your quilt surface. Take my Plaid-ish quilt called "Ace of Diamonds" / "Ruutuässä": the purples and turquoises get a complement from a surprisingly intense orange, which works very well there.
Another example: a bright orange patch close to a subdued turquoise fabric repeats the colour of the fish pattern and peps up the surface of the "Peacock Koi Carp" / "Riikinkukkokarppi" zipper bag:
The hexagons on the "Humming Bird" / "Kolibri" zipper pouch also feature bright orange and a bit of turquoise. This zipper bag would look far blander without the orange spark.
When I was small, I hated to see orange matched with green! The combination was the worst I could think of! I’ve since got over this idea, and for example, the odd-looking lining piece that I created some ten years ago looks great to my today’s eyes!
Even if orange isn’t your favourite colour, you could experiment with a smaller project. Or add small patches of orange onto a larger surface. Who knows, sometimes it might be just what your project needs.

I’ll be discussing colours again, sharing tips and stories from my own work. If you want to be sure to get all my colour tips – and possibly other updates as well – you can subscribe to my biweekly newsletter.

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