I got lots of questions recently when I mentioned anchor colours, so here's a little more about my use of them in the Tiny Tumblers scrap quilt I'm working on currently.
What are anchor colours & why use them?
When making a scrap quilt anchor colours help pull the chaos together. They create cohesion!
In my current project, I chose cream, beige, caramel and brown as anchor colours. There's a significant amount of those colours in every row and therefore block.
That way the overall palette will be dominated by those colours. Using anchor colours you can make sure a scrappy quilt suits a certain aesthetic.
Examples:
- Pale and medium blue used as anchor colours can help a scrap quilt to feel perfect for a calm coastal aesthetic
- Brown, green and beige can give a scrap quilt a very distinct camouflage or hunting vibe
- Low volume scraps with white or cream background make a scrap quilt feel modern and uncluttered
So you can choose anchor colours based on what scraps you have available or pull some fabric from stash to mix in with your scraps.
I always think quilts with this cream, beige, caramel and brown colour scheme feel cosy, like they'd be perfect in an old mountain cabin. My husband loves the old fashioned masculine vibes of the mountain cabin aesthetic, so I'm sure he'll love this quilt once it's complete.
So, consider using anchor colours in your next scrappy project, you can still mix in a wild array of scraps with the anchor colours to truly demolish your scrap hoard in a quilt that will be scrappy but not totally chaotic!