Color Placement

April 15, 2025

Picking colors for my blocks is one of the things I find most enjoyable. Often we look at patterns and use the exact same family of color choices that the designer of the pattern used. Then, sometimes we switch it up and pick totally different colors and even that makes a huge difference in what the finished quilt will look like.  I know I've talked about color before, but I'm going in a different direction today as you will see when you read to the end of this. Do you ever look at a quilt block and try to really envision it in a totally different way?

I'll start with one of the most obvious, basic way to switch a block up, and I'm sure it's one that most of you have already done.....interchanging the background fabric and colored fabric placement.

This is a simple way to give the block a different look. It also impacts the overall look of the quilt. In the cases above, both make the center design of the block stand out because of the stark contrast between the two colors used. But what if you want the block design to blend in a bit more, maybe not grab the eye quite so boldly? Maybe you don't want quite so much contrast in your quilt. In that case, going with two colors that have less contrast would do that.

But, I want to go even further than that. Try looking at a block design and then breaking it down into the different components that make it up (hst's, 4-patches, flying geese etc). Then envision using your colors to construct a block that almost doesn't resemble the original block you started with.

Look at the following picture closely. You can see both blocks look totally different but if you break it down into the components you will see that the two blocks are constructed exactly the same BUT the color placement has been totally switched up. Both blocks use a Cat's Cradle square in each of the four corners, along with four hourglass blocks and a large center square. Most of us would assume these were two totally different block patterns if we just quickly looked at these two blocks.

It's hard to believe that it's the same block, isn't it? I find it amazing that by just playing with color placement you can totally change up the look of a block or even an entire quilt.

Color can also be used to catch your eye. Often times, the darkest fabric is where your eye will rest. In the blocks above, my eye seems to be drawn to the dark fabric which surrounds the outer edge of the design in the block on the left, but I'm drawn to the dark center of the block on the right.

But besides "catching" your eye, color can also make your eye "travel" or follow a certain direction. Again, both of the pictures below are made up with the same components (only four hst's and four 4-patches) but with color changes, it's amazing not only how completely different they look, but how your eye will move over them.

I find the block on the right makes my eye just "settle" on the roundish ringlike shape, but the block on the left makes my eye want to travel and follow the color transition back and forth from light to dark.

Just imagine how many different looks you could achieve by breaking blocks down into components and then thinking outside the box with your color placement. Wouldn't it be a fun challenge for a guild or quilting group to pick a quilt block pattern and then see all the different looks that everyone could come up with by playing with color placement? Give it a try, I think you might like playing with color placement!!!!

Twila

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