Hey Everyone, welcome back to Colourful Friday.

This week I am a bit delayed in getting my post out as I was working on a double-dog-dare which I will highlight tomorrow for Coffee Talk Saturday.  Make sure to check back as it is really good.

What is a split-complementary colour scheme?

I am just going to back track a bit and refresh everyone’s memory on what a complementary colour scheme is.  Complementary colours are found directly across from each other on the colour wheel. The most common complementary colour duo is red and green.  For some more info check out my blog post on complementary colour schemes.

A split-complementary is made up of a trio of colours with one colour of a complementary pair and the two colours on either side of the other colour in that complementary pair.

Using the red and green complementary pair as an example.  Red and green are the complement and I want red to be in the quilt.  The green will be removed but the two colours on either side of the green will be added to the red to make the split-complementary.  These two colours are yellow-green and blue-green.  They make a very stunning trio.

One of the colours is usually the main colour in the quilt and the other two are supporting characters.  Often the main fabric is the one that is part of the complementary pair.  In the above example the red more than likely would become the main fabric as it is a very dominant colour.

On the Colour Wheel or Star

A close up of the triangle.

On the wheel the top of the line for complementary colours is the start of a triangle with the other two colours being at the bottom points of the triangle.  The complement to the colour at the top of the triangle is in between these two colours.

Here is how the scheme looks on the colour star.

Blue-green, red and orange.

This colour scheme makes for some very stunning and dramatic quilts.  The wheel is made up of many combinations of this colour schemes – after all there are 6 different complementary colour schemes.

Violet, yellow-green and yellow-orange.

So there’s a little bit of info about how to identify split-complementary colours.

Will your next quilt be made with this colour scheme?

Happy Quilting!