Blue Quilts – Blue Fabric Mixes that Look Good in Handmade Quilts

Jul 31, 2010
Christine Mann

1. Blue Quilt: Iznik Flowers by Mabry Benson - Photo by Christine Mann

Blue is a cool, soothing color that symbolizes honesty, loyalty, and patriotism. Learn how to combine blue with other colors to make beautiful quilts.

There’s a good reason why color research company Pantone Inc. chose shades of blue as its Color of the Year for the years 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008, and 2010: more people around the world say blue is their favorite color than any other color.

Color Quilts Blue for Universal Appeal

According to a study reported by Site Difference Corporation, 57% of men and 35% of women named blue as their favorite color. Blue was far more popular than the next-most-favorite colors, purple and green. It was also rarely chosen as a least-favorite color. This makes blue quilts a good color choice for charity quilts or gifts that go to someone the quilter doesn’t know.

The color of fathomless seas and cloudless skies, blue is a tranquil, calming color, good for quilts that will go in a bedroom or sick room. Blue’s relaxing reputation is borne out by research showing that exposure to blues can slow down the nervous system and reduce blood pressure. Politicians like to wear blue because of the way it evokes honesty, loyalty, and patriotism.

The color blue also has a dark side – that cold, sad, lonely feeling called the blues. Blue is the color of tears as well as water. Blue is serious and sincere, but less stark than black. This makes blue fabrics an option to consider for quilts that mark a loss or sad event.

Four Good-Looking Color Schemes for Blue Patchwork Quilts

Quilters can create very different visual effects by combining blue quilt fabric with colors that either blend in with or contrast with blue. Here are several tried-and-true blue color schemes based on the principles of color theory. Try them all to create blue quilts with many different moods. Learn more about combining colors for sewing and quilting.

Monochromatic blue quilts. A monochromatic quilt uses a limited palette of blue combined only with white, black, or other shades, tints, or tones of blue. Photo 1 at the bottom of the page shows that a simple blue-and-white combination can make a stunning quilt. Photo 2 below shows the restful quality of a quilt built from several different shades of blue fabric. Learn more about making monochromatic quilts.
Blue mixed with orange or orange-yellow. Blue’s complementary color (the color on the opposite side of the color wheel) is orange or orange-yellow. The blue Lonestar quilt in Photo 3 below shows how this combination can have a soft and traditional look, but is still more lively than a color scheme based entirely on blues or colors close to blue.
Blue combined with green or purple. These colors, the ones located next to blue on the color wheel, are called its analogous colors. Photo 4 shows how the blending of closely related colors gives this blue-green quilt a soothing feeling.
Red, white, and blue quilts. This color combination has a special patriotic meaning for Americans or quilters who live in other countries with red, white and blue flags. Photo 5 below shows a quilt made with small-scale floral quilt fabrics in red, white, and blue. This combination works well with blue as the foundation fabric and the white and red fabrics used as accents.

Test Blue Fabric Combinations Before Sewing

If you’re still uncertain about how well the fabrics you’ve chosen will work together in a particular pattern, it’s a good idea to test them by putting swatches of the fabrics up on a quilt design wall and leaving them there for a few days to see how well they wear on you. If you want to be really sure the fabrics will work together, make a test block that shows exactly how they will look together in the quilt. Learn nine ways to make an inexpensive quilt design wall.

Blue quilting fabric comes in shades from the palest aqua to the deepest blue-violet, and in prints that range from tiny sprigged florals to bold celestials and abstract swirls. Next time you make a quilt, try pulling some blue fabrics from your stash and combining them in a color scheme you haven’t tried before.