Color Play: Easy Steps to Imaginative Color in Quilts (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Selecting colors for your quilt's design should be one of the most exciting and interesting phases in your quiltmaking..." (more)
Key Phrases: triadic partners, analogous color range, analogous neighbors, Star Stretch, Nancy's Fancy, Stepping Stones (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Stretching the imagination with creative color play lies at the heart of this fun-filled, results-oriented guide to producing more striking quilts. A gallery of over seventy lusciously colored quilts illustrates the author's techniques for choosing colors. Sample fabric arrangements make color concepts easy to understand; color scales show the variations of pure hues, tints, shades, and tones and how they affect the mood of a quilt.

About the Author

Joen Wolfrom, the author of Make Any Block Any Size and other quilting books, teaches and lectures internationally. She lives in Fox Island, Washington.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: C&T Publishing (October 25, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157120105X
• ISBN-13: 978-1571201058
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #93,564 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

121 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moods and seasons of color, January 12, 2002

By	Suzanne P. Thomas (Colorado, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

Nothing is more disappointing than to see a beautifully sewn quilt that is ugly. All those hours and material invested to produce, hmm, well, something that will keep someone warm.
While nothing can replace a quilter's own developing sense of color relationships for creating a stunning quilt, Joen's Color Play is a great self-teaching tool. Information many people learned years ago in school, for example that blue and orange are complementary colors, is not true in fabrics. Joen presents the Ives Color Wheel, and promises her readers that using magenta, yellow and turquoise as the primary colors instead of red, yellow and blue will 'create the most powerfully beautiful colors in the world.' The Ives Color Wheel is presented as the only element on page 11 so it is large enough to be very useful when selecting fabrics.
Joen also discusses the colors that correspond with various seasons and moods, helping any quilter who wants to convey a particular feeling or time of year.
Although much of the book consists of color drawings of quilts to illustrate color partnerships, dozens of pictures of real quilts are included and referred to as examples. A bonus chapter at the end explain how to created special effects such as a sense of depth, luminosity, luster, transparency, shadows and highlights - very inspiring!
A great reference book!

99 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good color reference book, June 24, 2001

By	"mcc84" (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

I am a big fan of Joen Wolfrom and own most of her books, including the Magical Effects of Color which is widely considered one of the best books on color theory for quilters. While I love and refer to The Magical Effects of Color, it tends to be slightly more academic than some might prefer as it goes into some depth on the theory and science of color. Color Play, while covering most of the same principles, is more of an applied lesson in color - a very readable reference when planning a color scheme for a quilt. The book is organized in chapters by color and for each color focuses on its characteristics, offering color combinations that are stunning. Much of her reference is the color combinations we see in nature and nature's spectacular use of analagous, complementary and split complementary color schemes. If you're like me, you'll want to own both The Magical Effects of Color AND Color Play ( as well as every other book by Wolfrom); however if you are simply looking for a very good color reference, Color Play is an excellent choice.

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Always a good source of inspiration, May 26, 2001

By	Carol H. Miller (www.Quilt University.com) - See all my reviews

It's always a pleasure to see a new book by Joen. I have loved her work since Landscapes and Illusions. Her previous book, the Magical Effects of Color is the premiere reference for working in fabric and color as far as I am concerned. This book is a continuation and recap of much of the information she has covered in Magical Effects and in The Visual Dance. If you already own those books, you will not find much truly new here, although the individual pages showing colors working together in tints and shades is a new and welcome addition. If you are not lucky enough to already have one of Joen's previous books, buy this one. Her understanding of what makes things works together cannot be beat. And she is explaining color from a textile viewpoint, not paint. It makes a world of difference. Her style is readable and all her points are linked to quilt examples. As always, it's like taking a class in color.