Color Confidence for Quilters®

Color has the power to be used for self expression, for evoking emotion, and for bringing pure pleasure. 

From the nightly spectacle that is a sunset, to a desert landscape, to a pair of hot pink tights, color has the ability to move us.

Someone with knowledge of color can use it as a tool to set the mood, to create contrast or emphasis, to surprise, or to tell a story.

But an artist who doesn't have knowledge of how color works will perpetually run into frustration.

In 2014, I began traveling and teaching Scrappy Appliqué and noticed a pattern: SO many quilters struggle with choosing fabrics for their quilts.

I started observing quilters in my workshops as they were choosing fabrics for their projects, and noticed 2 types of students. One type would agonize over which fabrics to choose, ultimately asking me or her neighbor. Many who fell into that same camp would eliminate that struggle all together by just bringing a precut or bundle to class. 

The other type of quilter I saw could pull together fabrics a lot more easily. They would add a fabric to the palette, step back and assess, then nod or shake her head and toss it aside. They approached color in a very intuitive manner-- going with their gut. However, sometimes their gut would tell them something was off with a palette, but they couldn't quite tell what.

The Problem 

So as I began considering how I might approach teaching color, the issue of these 2 different types of approaches plagued me. How do you teach something that is intuitive for some and not for others?

I knew about Color Theory and knew I could teach the "rules" regarding color that have been taught in art schools throughout history. But I knew approaching this topic only through the structured science-based lens would prove annoying, unhelpful, and stifling to all those intuitive quilters.

The Psychology of Creativity

As I was pondering this problem, I called my friend, a talented artist and beautiful human, Doug Upchurch. Doug founded the Austin branch of the company my husband worked for that specialized in learning development based on the work of renowned psychologist, Carl Jung. 

I knew he'd have some insight into this question with his expertise in Jung's work and his experience as an artist. The question we tossed around was, where does creativity and intuition live in the brain's psychology? Why is it that people can approach art in such different ways?

Doug shared with me what Jung identified as sensing and intuition. We take in information using both. He said we all have access to both, but may prefer one over another. 

So someone with a sensing preference takes in information using the 5 senses. They look for what they can see, measure, touch, taste. These are our engineers, our scientists. They love data and structure.

Someone with more of an intuitive preference takes in information using their intuition-- their gut. They know at once whether they like something or not.

Once I understood this, all the dots started connecting!

The two types of quilters I was noticing were not the "good with color" and "not good with color". Or the "creative" and "not creative", like so many people think. 

It was those who have more of a sensing preference or an intuitive preference. 

The Magic 

Those with a sensing preference, who struggled so much with fabric selection, simply needed to understand a bit about the Science of Color. They needed some principles and some formulas to guide them. 

And those with an intuitive preference, who would often look at a palette and notice that something was just off, but couldn't identify what, would also benefit with joining the Science of Color with the Art.

This became the premiss of the Color Confidence for Quilters™ curriculum. Combining the Science with the Art of Color for a thorough, balanced, and empowering approach to understanding color and pattern.

And after YEARS of research, development, and testing with quilters from all around the world, it is simple, powerful, and customized specifically to quilters.

This full Color Curriculum Covers:

• understanding the Art & Science of Color

• The 4 Elements of Color

• Mastering the Color Wheel

• Understanding tone

• Working with Neutrals and Undertones

• Print & Pattern Mixing

• Classic Color Palettes

• How to define your "Color Style" and get outside your "Color Comfort Zone"

• Simple & Creative Color Formulas to make fabric selection a pleasure and a breeze

• How to use Color to affect the mood of your quilt

Color Confidence for Quilters™ is a popular choice for any guild or shop since ALL quilters, even the experienced artists, can benefit from becoming more confident in their color skills. 

The Color Confidence for Quilters™ Teacher Training is organized into blocks that you can mix and match to build your own programs, workshops, or workshop series.

This allows you to offer many different workshops to the same few guilds. This is HUGE. This means you can create a good relationship with a few guilds and come back over and over, teaching new and exciting content. This will make your job a lot easier. You could:

• Teach at a retreat and offer new classes each day

• Teach a 6 month Color Confidence for Quilters series, sharing one color program at every guild meeting, or a new workshop each month

• If you already teach, this pairs perfectly with any other quilting workshops, since all quilters can benefit from mastering color

By the end of training, you will not only be an incredible teacher, but a color expert. 

So if you're interested in becoming a color expert, and learning how to teach color in such a way that empowers and inspires your students, we'd love to have you join in on the fun and become a Certified Color Confidence for Quilters™ Teacher.

We are limiting enrollment to 20 teachers, and there are only a couple spots left. 

Click below to learn more about Color Confidence for Quilters™ and our CT Program and to grab one of the last spots!

Learn More / Enroll Now

 Have a beautiful week,

Shannon 

    

P.S. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask, simply hit reply on this email, and we'll be happy to help!

  

 

 

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