Opposites attract, and complementary colour schemes (that's the ones where the colours sit opposite each other on the colour wheel) are the ones with the most impact in any composition.
I love this coral and blue colour palette, and think it works really well for some stunning quilts. But have a look for yourself below!
Image courtesy of sarahreneaclark.com
Fabric swatches for March 2026
Having colours on the screen as inspiration is one thing, but as quilters we need to be able to find them in fabric collections as well. I'm using the QuiltySolid app to put together fabric collections of some common solids brands. Not all brands have the same variety of shades of every colour, so you'll see some variance in the brands I list here depending on the current palette.
- Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton: Chili, Salmon, Celestial, Turquoise, Bahama Blue
- Northcott Colorworks: Vermillion, Tango, Denim, Capri, Surf
- Moda Bella Solids: Mandarin, Persimmon, Harbor, Mediterranean, Marine
- Andover Fabrics Century Solids: Carrot, Coral Sunset, Lagoon, Peacock, Water
- HEX codes, to look up other brands: #FD4F00, #FF7063, #245B82, #328FB8, #81DDF0
Always check these in person, though. The app gives the closest colours by hue, saturation, and value, to the HEX code entered, but they may not look quite right together in person. Substituting a different shade for one of the fabrics might work better.
Mockups of real quilt patterns
I love this colour combination, because of the high impact complementary colours have, and also because blue is one of my favourite colours. Creating the mockups for this month's palette gave me a bunch of ideas for quilts I would like to make (whether I have the time for them remains to be seen, though).
My first try this month was
Victorian Tiles. This pattern has some interesting effects depending on the colour placement, a can look very different from one colour palette to another. In this version, I like how the red blocks stand out and are framed by the blue stars. It actually reminds me of a mug I have in those same colours.
For a second try, I went with
Star Gems. Normally for this pattern, the gems would be a third colour, but I decided to repeat some of the blues and I love how it makes the coral stars pop on what almost looks like a blue background.
Ripple & Swirl is always a fun one to try out with contrasting colours, too. In this case I used the Ripple layout and just added one extra shade of red to have 3 for each colour. I chose to just stick with solids but this could be an awesome scrap and stash buster, too, in lots of blenders and tone-on-tone prints.
And lastly,
Twisted Log Cabin got a trial run, too. The original block I made was a similar complementary colour scheme, using turquoise and yellow, so I figured it would work out pretty well with the red and coral up against the blues, and I was not disappointed. Here's what a single block looks like...
... and here they are all together in a fun layout.
What do you think? Would you try out this colour palette in a future quilt? Pin the image below to your inspiration file!
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