Color Play: Easy Steps to Imaginative Color in Quilts

This book is great way to help with choosing fabric color selections for quilt!! Very happy with it..

I already own this book and I am buying a second one for a friend. This is the best introduction to Color Theory in quilting I have ever seen. It is very easy to read and understand and the photos are awesome. I recommend this book to any beginner, intermediate or advanced quilter OR anyone who wants to learn basic color theory!

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!

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.

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.

I have read countless quilt books in an unsatisfactory search for answers about creative quilt design. This book has provided a sensible order to the confusion of color choice and combination decisions. The clear, concise, plain talk explanations are just what I have been searching for. The breathtaking example quilts are easily found by matching the photo number to the book page number. The photography and illustrations are outstanding. I also found the fabric selection samples to be most helpful. The ending chapter on illusions finally explained what had been vague terms to me previously. This is a book that is not only beautiful to browse through but extremely informative and useful in a practical sense. What a rare combination. Joen has produced another spectacular book!