Unfortunately, that isn't really a good description. The quilt is golden yellow. What the heck does that mean?
(An aside: I find color names such as "maize" or "mustard" or "jonquil" or "lemon chiffon" and yes, even "golden yellow," to be completely and utterly useless. My description of a color includes it's hue (basic color) it's intensity (how bright or dull it is) and it's value (how light or dark it is.) My quilt is a light to medium value slightly warm yellow. A bright yellow is as bright as a yellow can be without being anything else, neither too cool (like a lemon) or too warm (getting closer to orange.) Because yellow is a very light color to begin with, as soon as it gets darker, it stops being yellow pretty quick, so it doesn't have much of a light/dark range as compared to other colors, or say, black.)
According to color theory, there are three primary hues (or colors), red, yellow and blue. From these all the other colors are made. (I am not talking about dyes or colors made from light.) Unfortunately that's not the way color pigments happen in the real world.
Pigments are either organic or synthetic. Organic means they come from the earth, either dirt or stone or from something that grows. Synthetic means they are developed from chemicals in laboratories. In artist paints, one of the basic yellows is Cadmium Yellow. Cadmium is a warm yellow. Another is a Zinc Yellow, which is a colder yellow. A lemon is closer to a cool yellow than a warm one. And since chemicals are in demand for other purposes (Cadmium is used in jet aircraft and batteries), colors available for purchase depend on the market for them. The fashion industry determines what colors are produced in clothing in any given year, that also limits your selection of colors at any given time. So it isn't always easy to get a "perfect" version of any color fabric.
What has that got to do with the price of tea in China? (In other words, hey Lynne, get to the point.) This quilt has twenty-eight different yellow fabrics. Yes, I have a good stash, and yes my yellow was a bit depleted, but YOU go buy 28 yellows and see how YOU do.) I did not want to make a yellow quilt so homogeneous that it looked like one version of yellow. I wanted to introduce something of interest and some other colors, because that is what makes a quilt magical. (I wrote a tutorial about how to use your fabrics to do the "heavy lifting" in your quilts, and you can find it here.)
Some of them are blenderish yellows. Some have busy prints (the Kaffee fans, the zebras, the butterflies, the big begonia leaves, the newsprint cut-up, the "marbled paper" one, as well as the chintz knock-off and the one with colored dots.)
I already had 20-30 yellows I wanted to use in the quilt. I bought another 9 more. My friend Gail sent me a huge box of fabric and I used several from the yellows she sent. When I put them all together, I felt some were too orange, so I left them out. There was a pair I sewed together that just didn't fit in the final quilt. (You can see that in one of the pictures in yesterday's post; it's underneath the zebras.) Some of my fabrics were "cool" yellows and most were decidedly "warm." There are pinks, greens, blues, silver and grays, and the odd purple. Those bits of colors are distributed across different fabrics. Like everything, it's a balancing act. Generally, the success (or failure) of a quilt depends on fabric selection.
So although I've been showing you this quilt as it has progressed over the last several days, you really can't tell just how yellow the quilt is, because things look different in the camera and the lighting in my studio, although vastly improved, has nothing over sunlight.
To wit:
One very yellow quilt, sitting out in full sunlight. Once this quilt has been quilted, and a layer of white batting is behind the quilt top, this will look yellower still.
Both of these outside pictures, by the way, show the quilt in the same orientation as you have seen it on my design wall as well as the picture at the top of this post.
I thought it was pretty in the studio, but as far as I am concerned, this is gorgeous, and I love it!
8 comments:
Just a great yellow quilt, with those little pops of other colors and the movement of the stripes/zigzags.
As I've told you already, I LOVE this quilt, too! Great explanation of the color yellow and why so many find it challenging to work with.
p.s. And I may just take you up on that "you go buy 28 yellows" challenge - although I plan to find mine in the stash just to see if I can pull it off.
The outside shots show beautiful color. Yellow is such a funny color. Sometimes it disappears when used in a block. Sometimes it is just too green or orange. All of your carefully picked and curated colors work just wonderful together. I have a hard time finding good yellows. It is hit or miss if I have to buy online.
Lovely, but not being a fan of yellow.... Prefer blues or green. TYVM.
Re: color names. DH and I are reading The Secret Lives of Colour by Kassia St. Clair. It's interesting (sometimes amusing), informative, and instructive -- and includes definitions for all the colo(u)r names we only somewhat knowledgeably. (E.g ultramarine is blue, sure, but how does it differ from other blues? And what is woad? Alizarin? Etc.) I've borrowed the book from the library but I'm going to buy a copy to keep. Maybe copies to give away, too.
Thank you for such an interesting analysis of yellow! It's my favorite color. Your quilt is stunning.
I'm reading Kassia's Secret Lives of Colour, too, and found your post equally interesting. Your quilt looks even better in sunlight than it does on the wall. Lovely. Enjoy quilting it.
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