I did a bit of web surfing and found a great site for picking colors out of a photo. It’s called the Image Color Picker and you can find it at https://image-color.com/. This is the image you’ll see when you go to their site:
It was so easy to use. I simply dragged my photo into the box just above the palm tree pic on the site, and it opened up with the color palette already created.
It “chooses” the colors (hues) that appear in the greatest quantity, so black/brown is “dominant”, but just look at the beautiful palette below that. We can easily go to our stash, or our favorite quilt shop, and pick out fabrics in these colors, knowing they will work well together in a quilt. Here’s another one:
Once again – a beautiful collection of hues for a quilt at the bottom. Since the bright “pops” of color in the photo are in smaller quantities, they don’t show up in the palette, but that doesn’t mean a bit of bright orange or yellow can’t be added!
Wouldn’t this make a great palette for your next Christmas quilt?!?
I must admit, I’m having a lot of fun with this site!!!
And here’s a photo Laurie sent me last week, along with it’s palette:
A beautiful collection of colors from just a single leaf!
So, I decided to look through my quilts and do things a bit backwards to give you an idea of how the colors around us could be used in quilts. This first image is of a bunch of leaves I found clustered together on my deck after a rain (isn’t God’s mastery of color amazing?), and the main colors pulled by the color picker site:
This quilt uses fabrics in this palette, plus a few of the brighter colors in the photo to spice things up 😁.
And here’s a palette taken from a tree in my backyard, followed by another of my favorite Autumn quilts:
I don’t really see much of the violet color from the palette in the photo, but it’s ok to leave out what doesn’t work and add a few of the brights.
This is just a tool to get you started. I hope you have some fun with it!
And, since I’ve been sharing photos, I can’t resist a few of Sommer and Trey jumping in the leaves! It’s been a beautiful Autumn and the leaf pile in our yard was huge!
Laurie Neubauer says
Wow! I have a hard time figuring out color palettes. You helped me get an idea of how to sort out the combining of colors in a quilt to make everything blend and pop at the same time. I especially liked the geraniums colors. Yes, God’s creation is magnificent. He tells us that He gives us signs every day of His glory through the beauty that surrounds us in rainbows, clouds, trees, flowers, animals, birds and especially people. Have a blessed day and week. Be safe and healthy till we meet again….Laurie 🙂
AGNES J SCHULTZ says
OGM Thanks for that tip. That is so much fun and so helpful!
Eileen Bastin says
Great tip! Can’t wait to try it! 😍
Laura Krasinski says
Great tip. Love the photos of the kids and you.
Heidi Carvin says
This would be a great tool for dyeing fabric or yarn too.
Judy says
I like how you share hands-on ideas for someone like me who needs help with color. Thank you so much. Judy from LaCrescent MN.
Patty Mattingly says
This is a fantastic find! Thanks Chris.