Hey Everyone, welcome back to Colourful Friday.

Warm or cool – which one are you drawn to?  I have to say that the cool colours always catch my eye before the warm colours do.  Looking in my closet the colours I choose to wear are definitely more to the cool side of the colour wheel than the warm side.  This also holds true for the colours I have chosen to decorate my house in.

The picture above has the warm coloured jelly fish popping out at us while the blue background recedes.

What is a warm colour?

Warm colours tend to have a suggestion of red, yellow or orange undertones to them. On the colour wheel they make up half of it ranging from red to yellow-green.

Warm colours on the colour wheel

A great example of warm colours are the colours we associate with autumn – rust, orange, yellow, gold, burgundy and brown.  Bargello in Autumn was made with the warm palette of yellow, oranges, rusts and brown.

Warm colours make up the colours in this Autumn Bargello Quilt

These colours give you a feeling of warmth and are associated with sunlight, heat and fire.

These warm colours of the sunset make the sky appear to be on fire.

As well they can fill you with excitement and happiness.

The tranquility of this sunset creates a feeling of happiness.

Warm colours give an impression of advancing visually in space which means in a quilt there is the illusion of them coming forward. This impression of advancing can be enhanced by placing them next to cool colours.  In the quilt below, Bargello in Summer, the yellow seems to pop out of the quilt against the cool purple.

The yellow pops as it sits by the cool purple.

What is a cool colour?

Cool colours tend to have a suggestion of blue as an undertone.  On the colour wheel they make up the other half which is green to red-violet.

Cool colours on the colour wheel.

An example of cool colours would be the colours of the sea – turquoise, blue and green.  Other examples would be the colour of winter,  night or shadows – indigo blue and deep purple.  Bargello in Winter below uses the blue hue to give a feeling of winter.

Cool colours make up the colours in this Winter Bargello Quilt

These colours give you a feeling of calmness and relaxation as well they can make one feel refreshed.

The tranquility of the cool colours of the sea.

They can also give an impression of  being cold and impersonal.

The coldness of a dark night sky.

Cool colours give an impression of receding away into the distance.  Depending on the colour they are sitting beside in a quilt will determine how much they appear to recede.  Here in the quilt Colour Connections the turquoise recedes into the background while the orange gives the illusion of advancing towards you.

The cool turquoise colour recedes into the quilt.

These warm and cool colours can be used together to create depth and movement in a quilt.  Experiment with them and see what happens when you put certain combinations of warm and cool colours together – you may be surprised what is created.

Happy Quilting!