How to add Pops of Color to your Quilt: Part 3

Jan 23, 2018

Have you ever been pulling fabric for a quilt, and thought, how can I make this look more interesting?

One of my favorite ways to make a color palette instantly more interesting is to add a POP of color! 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.

The first week, we learned about the Analogous Pop of Color, which will keep the quilt looking calm and harmonious while adding just a bit more interest. Last week we talked about the Complementary Pop of Color, which is more abrupt, playful, and surprising. Today we are discussing probably my favorite kind of pop -- what I call the Subtle Pop.

It's a sneaky and smooth way to add that pop without being too abrupt.

The Subtle Pop of Color

The magic ingredient in the Subtle Pop of Color is a fabulous multi-colored piece of fabric that blends with the rest of the fabrics in your palette.

Look at the fabric pull below. You'll see mostly golds -- that's what I started with. Then I added those pops of aqua and dusty blue, but don't focus on those-- look at that fabric on the right.

THAT is my magic ingredient. It has golds in it, so it will blend well with the mostly gold palette, but it also has greens and purples in it which will provide the pops! That is how you can super subtly add those pops of colors and be confident they'll look great.

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

Then I found a multi-colored fabric with a lot of gold in it. Kaffe Fasset fabrics (like the one on the right) are my favorite to use in this way since large portions of the print are covered in a color and all his fabrics include a variety of fabulous colors. They also work well since most are larger in scale -- when I cut this fabric into small pieces, you aren't necessarily going to see flowers, rather bits of color here and there-- perfect for pops!

Notice I use these magical prints sparingly -- less is more. I'll use one or two per quilt, typically.

I did drop in those aqua and dusty blue pops for some added interest, but I could have just included the Subtle Pop by itself.

Here are some other quilts with the Subtle Pop of Color.

Greens and gold base with multi colored prints that have green in them, but also include purple and pink pops. (Find over 100 different city skyline patterns, here.)

Greens and yellows with that same fabric that I showed above that has the fuchsia pops, and I added some extra fuchsia pieces for more pop. (Find the tutorial for this computer/tablet case here).

Golds with another Kaffe floral that has gold as well as pink and blue. (You can find the Bunny pattern here)

In each one of these animals, I started with a monochromatic palette and added in a multi-colored fabric that contains the main color. (Find over 30 different animal patterns here.)

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How to add Pops of Color to your Quilt: Part 3

The Subtle Pop of Color

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