What is Your Quilter's Color Season?

Quiz Questions

• 1.
  Which rainbow is your favorite?

  • A.
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    A
  • B.
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    B
  • C.
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    C
  • D.
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    D
• 2.
  Which quilt's color palette is your favorite? Focus just on the colors — not the quilt pattern or style.

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    A
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    B
  • C.
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    C
  • D.
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    D
• 3.
  Which cool palette do you prefer?

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    A
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    B
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    C
  • D.
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    D
• 4.
  Which fabric palette is your favorite?

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    A
  • B.
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    B
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    C
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    D
• 5.
  Which warm palette do you prefer?

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    A
  • B.
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    B
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    C
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    D
• 6.
  Which describes colors you're most drawn to?

  • A.
    Light, bright, clear, pastel
  • B.
    Delicate, soft, light, elegant
  • C.
    Rich, muted, saturated
  • D.
    Intense, bright, vibrant
• 7.
  Which quilt's color palette is your favorite? Focus just on the colors — not the quilt pattern or style.

  • A.
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    A
  • B.
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    B (quilt by Shannon Brinkley)
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    C (quilt by Nydia Kehnle)
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    D (quilt by Casey York)
• 8.
  Of these quilts, choose your favorite color palette. (Focus just on the colors — not the quilt pattern or style.)

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    A
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    B
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    C
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    D
• 9.
  Which event’s color palette is your favorite?

  • A.
    Easter
  • B.
    New Years Eve / bright, sparkling
  • C.
    Thanksgiving / harvest
  • D.
    An elegant wedding
• 10.
  Last one: what's the trickiest part of choosing fabrics for you?

  • A.
    I fall back on the same colors all the time.
  • B.
    My finished quilt never looks like it did in my head.
  • C.
    I second-guess every choice and ask everyone's opinion.
  • D.
    Honestly? All of the above

Quiz Outcomes

• 1.
  You're a Spring!

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  You're the quilter who walks into the shop and heads straight for the fabrics that feel happy — clear pinks, fresh greens, that yellow that looks like the first daffodil after a long gray winter. You don't want your quilts to whisper. You want them to feel like a burst of life. And if a palette starts feeling heavy or muddy, something in you quietly says nope.Your Color Season is light, bright, warm, and clear. Think first bulbs in the garden, cherry blossoms, Easter eggs, Neapolitan ice cream. Here's the thing about seasons: they're really tone formulas. Any hue can go with any other hue — what makes a palette sing is choosing colors that share a tone. Yours is the clear, sunlit one. That's why your favorite fabrics all seem to "go," even when the colors themselves are wildly different.Your strengths:You bring instant joy and energy to a quilt — Spring palettes never take themselves too seriously.You have a natural radar for clarity — you can spot a muddy fabric from across the room (even if you didn't have the word for it until today).Playfulness is a design skill, and you have it in spades. It keeps your work fresh and unfussy.What to watch for:The pastel comfort zone. Spring includes brights — lime, coral, clear turquoise. If a quilt starts feeling too sweet, one zingy fabric wakes the whole thing up.Muted fabrics sneaking into your pull. A Civil War print in a Spring palette will fight you every time — it's not wrong, it's just a different season's tone.Reaching for the same three happy colors on repeat. Your season is bigger than your ruts.What this means for your quilting: Once you know you're a Spring, fabric pulls stop being a guessing game. You're not asking "do these colors match?" anymore — you're asking "are these all light, bright, and clear?" That one question will save you from the stack of almost-right fabrics that never quite work, and it means you can finally shop your own stash with confidence.Try this today: Go pull five fabrics from your stash that feel light, bright, and clear — any hues you like. Lay them out together. Now find one fabric that's muted or dusty and set it beside them. See how it goes quiet and heavy next to the others? That's tone. You just trained your eye a little, and it compounds every time you do it.I'm Shannon Brinkley — quilt artist, author, and teacher of the Color Confidence for Quilters™ curriculum. I've taught thousands of quilters all over the world, and if there's one thing I know for sure, it's this: an eye for color is not something you're born with — it's something you build. If there's a gap, it's a knowledge gap, not a talent gap. And knowledge gaps can be filled.Keep an eye on your inbox — I just sent your Spring results plus a few of my favorite ways to use them.Want the full formula (not just your corner of it)?The Quilter's Color Seasons Guide is the complete companion to this quiz — all four seasons decoded, your Spring color wheel, and a library of ready-to-pull palettes so your next fabric pull is your easiest one yet.All four Color Seasons, decoded — so you can spot any fabric's season at a glance (and finally know why certain fabrics refuse to play together)The Spring Color Wheel — your season's tones, arranged on a printable wheel, plus all three other seasons' wheels for when you want to stretchThe Color Seasons Palette Library — dozens of ready-made palettes organized by season, so you can pull a gorgeous stack tonight without second-guessing a single fabricThe Fabric Pull Exercise — my simple practice for training your eye, one pull at a timeMixing seasons, made simple — which seasons pair beautifully (and why), for when you're ready to bend the formulaIt's $27 — about the price of two yards of quilting cotton, for the tool that helps you choose every yard after that.
• 2.
  You're a Summer!

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  You're the quilter with the quietly elegant eye. While everyone else reaches for the loud prints, you're drawn to lavender, sage, dusty blue — colors that feel like a hazy morning at the shore or an English garden after rain. People probably tell you your quilts feel calm, sophisticated, put-together. And a fabric that's too bright or too shiny? It practically shouts at you from the shelf.Your Color Season is cool, delicate, soft, and light. Here's the thing about seasons: they're really tone formulas. Any hue can go with any other hue — what makes a palette sing is choosing colors that share a tone. Yours is the soft, muted, graceful one. It's light like Spring, but gently subdued — which is exactly why your favorite palettes feel effortless instead of busy.Your strengths:Harmony is your superpower. Summer palettes hang together almost automatically, because everything shares that soft, cool tone.You have a rare eye for subtlety — you notice the difference between blush and bubblegum, between sage and kelly green. Most people's eyes skate right past that.Elegance without fuss. Your quilts can look traditional and formal or soft and effortless, and both are completely you.What to watch for:Low contrast falling flat. When everything is equally soft, a quilt can lose its shape — vary your lights and darks (a deep navy is Summer's best friend for this).Bright, clear fabrics overpowering your pull. One neon in a Summer stack will steal the whole show — not wrong, just a different season's tone.Playing it so safe the quilt disappears. Your season has richness in it — plum, teal, deep rose. Use them.What this means for your quilting: Once you know you're a Summer, fabric pulls stop being agonizing. You're not asking "do these colors match?" — you're asking "are these all soft, cool, and light?" That one question explains years of almost-right pulls, and it means you can walk into any shop (or your own stash) and build a palette that feels unmistakably yours.Try this today: Pull five soft, muted fabrics from your stash — any hues at all. Lay them together. Now add one bright, clear fabric next to them and watch it shout. That's tone, and you just saw it with your own eyes. Then try swapping in one darker muted fabric — see how the contrast gives the palette a spine? Two little lessons, one pull.I'm Shannon Brinkley — quilt artist, author, and teacher of the Color Confidence for Quilters™ curriculum. I've taught thousands of quilters all over the world, and if there's one thing I know for sure, it's this: an eye for color is not something you're born with — it's something you build. If there's a gap, it's a knowledge gap, not a talent gap. And knowledge gaps can be filled.Keep an eye on your inbox — I just sent your Summer results plus a few of my favorite ways to use them.Want the full formula (not just your corner of it)?The Quilter's Color Seasons Guide is the complete companion to this quiz — all four seasons decoded, your Summer color wheel, and a library of ready-to-pull palettes so your next fabric pull is your easiest one yet.All four Color Seasons, decoded — so you can spot any fabric's season at a glance (and finally know why certain fabrics refuse to play together)The Summer Color Wheel — your season's tones, arranged on a printable wheel, plus all three other seasons' wheels for when you want to stretchThe Color Seasons Palette Library — dozens of ready-made palettes organized by season, so you can pull a gorgeous stack tonight without second-guessing a single fabricThe Fabric Pull Exercise — my simple practice for training your eye, one pull at a timeMixing seasons, made simple — which seasons pair beautifully (and why), for when you're ready to bend the formulaIt's $27 — about the price of two yards of quilting cotton, for the tool that helps you choose every yard after that.
• 3.
  You're an Autumn!

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  You're the quilter who feels colors in your chest. Rust, ochre, deep teal, mustard, wine — rich, earthy colors with some substance to them. Your favorite palettes feel like a long walk through October woods or a table set for harvest dinner. Pale, wispy pastels leave you cold, and you've probably never met a gold you didn't like.Your Color Season is rich, intense, muted, and fiery. Here's the thing about seasons: they're really tone formulas. Any hue can go with any other hue — what makes a palette sing is choosing colors that share a tone. Yours is the deep, warm, saturated-but-muted one — and it happens to have the widest range of any season, from pale straw all the way to smoldering ochre. There's a lot of room to play in here.Your strengths:Depth and warmth come naturally to you — Autumn quilts feel substantial, like they've always existed.You're the season that makes browns, beiges, and golds look luxurious instead of dull. That's genuinely hard to do, and you do it by instinct.Intensity without shouting. Your palettes are vibrant and muted at once — that richness is a signature most quilters have to work years to find.What to watch for:Neons and icy brights crashing the party. A clear, electric fabric in an Autumn pull will look like it wandered in from someone else's quilt — different season, different tone.Going so earthy the quilt loses its fire. Autumn isn't just brown — it's fiery. Keep a rust, wine, or saturated teal in the mix.Muddy sameness. With everything muted, vary your values so the design still reads across the room.What this means for your quilting: Once you know you're an Autumn, fabric pulls stop being a guessing game. You're not asking "do these colors match?" — you're asking "are these all rich, warm, and muted?" That one question explains why those Civil War prints and that batik never got along, and it means you can shop your stash with the confidence of somebody who knows exactly what she's looking for. Because now, you do.Try this today: Pull five rich, muted fabrics from your stash — mix warm and cool hues freely (yes, that deep teal belongs with the rust — same tone, gorgeous contrast). Lay them out. Now set one pale pastel or one neon beside them and watch it refuse to blend. That's tone. Your eye just got a little sharper, and it compounds every time.I'm Shannon Brinkley — quilt artist, author, and teacher of the Color Confidence for Quilters™ curriculum. I've taught thousands of quilters all over the world, and if there's one thing I know for sure, it's this: an eye for color is not something you're born with — it's something you build. If there's a gap, it's a knowledge gap, not a talent gap. And knowledge gaps can be filled.Keep an eye on your inbox — I just sent your Autumn results plus a few of my favorite ways to use them.Want the full formula (not just your corner of it)?The Quilter's Color Seasons Guide is the complete companion to this quiz — all four seasons decoded, your Autumn color wheel, and a library of ready-to-pull palettes so your next fabric pull is your easiest one yet.All four Color Seasons, decoded — so you can spot any fabric's season at a glance (and finally know why certain fabrics refuse to play together)The Autumn Color Wheel — your season's tones, arranged on a printable wheel, plus all three other seasons' wheels for when you want to stretchThe Color Seasons Palette Library — dozens of ready-made palettes organized by season, so you can pull a gorgeous stack tonight without second-guessing a single fabricThe Fabric Pull Exercise — my simple practice for training your eye, one pull at a timeMixing seasons, made simple — which seasons pair beautifully (and why), for when you're ready to bend the formulaIt's $27 — about the price of two yards of quilting cotton, for the tool that helps you choose every yard after that.
• 4.
  You're a Winter!

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  You're the quilter who never apologizes for bold. Icy blue next to neon pink? Yes. A whole quilt on a black background? Absolutely — in fact, that black is probably your secret weapon. While other quilters are softening and blending, you're turning the volume up, and your favorite quilts have a little glamour to them — a New Year's Eve sparkle, even in July.[3 · What this means] Your Color Season is intense, bright, cool, and clear. Here's the thing about seasons: they're really tone formulas. Any hue can go with any other hue — what makes a palette sing is choosing colors that share a tone. Yours is the bold, saturated, crystal-clear one — Spring's clarity with the intensity cranked all the way up. It's the season of extremes: icy blues, jewel tones, metallic gold, true black. No mud, no dust, no apology.[4 · Your strengths]Drama and confidence. Winter quilts stop people in their tracks from across the room — your palettes have presence.You're the season where black shines. Black makes your brights look brighter, and you probably knew that before anyone told you.Clarity is your compass. You can spot a dusty, faded fabric instantly — that discernment is a trained eye already at work.[5 · What to watch for]Muted fabrics dulling your sparkle. That lovely dusty rose will look tired next to your fuchsia — it's not wrong, it's just a different season's tone.All intensity, no rest. Even Winter needs a quiet note — an icy pale blue or crisp white gives the eye somewhere to land.Mistaking "bold" for "everything at once." Your season loves a focused palette — three or four intense colors will outshine ten every time.[6 · What this means for your quilting] Once you know you're a Winter, fabric pulls stop being a guessing game. You're not asking "do these colors match?" — you're asking "are these all intense, clear, and cool?" That one question is why the bright stack works and the "little bit of everything" stack doesn't, and it means you can be as bold as you actually are — on purpose, with confidence.[7 · Try this today] Pull four or five of the most saturated, clear fabrics in your stash — any hues, the brighter the better — and add one true black. Lay them out and watch the black make everything pop. Now slide in one muted, dusty fabric and see it go gray next to the others. That's tone. Your eye just learned something it won't unlearn.[8 · Hi, I'm Shannon] I'm Shannon Brinkley — quilt artist, author, and teacher of the Color Confidence for Quilters™ curriculum. I've taught thousands of quilters all over the world, and if there's one thing I know for sure, it's this: an eye for color is not something you're born with — it's something you build. If there's a gap, it's a knowledge gap, not a talent gap. And knowledge gaps can be filled.[9 · The invitation — tripwire block] Keep an eye on your inbox — I just sent your Winter results plus a few of my favorite ways to use them.Want the full formula (not just your corner of it)?The Quilter's Color Seasons Guide is the complete companion to this quiz — all four seasons decoded, your Winter color wheel, and a library of ready-to-pull palettes so your next fabric pull is your easiest one yet.All four Color Seasons, decoded — so you can spot any fabric's season at a glance (and finally know why certain fabrics refuse to play together)The Winter Color Wheel — your season's tones, arranged on a printable wheel, plus all three other seasons' wheels for when you want to stretchThe Color Seasons Palette Library — dozens of ready-made palettes organized by season, so you can pull a gorgeous stack tonight without second-guessing a single fabricThe Fabric Pull Exercise — my simple practice for training your eye, one pull at a timeMixing seasons, made simple — which seasons pair beautifully (and why), for when you're ready to bend the formulaIt's $27 — about the price of two yards of quilting cotton, for the tool that helps you choose every yard after that.