Colour story
Where this came from.
A five-swatch neutral palette card supplied by the founder: Cream White, Muted Olive Green, Warm Sand, Soft Brown and Dark Terracotta Brown, each with a printed hex.
SAMPLED for five of six; the card has five swatches for six fabrics, so the sixth is not from it. Sampled pixels sit a consistent 4-9 points of lightness below the printed values, all in the same direction — the card's own photographed texture, not a misreading — so the printed values are used, as with SEVENTIES. Assigned by scoring every arrangement against this quilt's seam shares.
Where each colour came from
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Fabric A
#EDE5D7The card's own printed Cream White (#F7F3EC) read as too stark a white for the quilt's ground once seen rendered — the founder's own call, 2026-10-12. Deepened 30% of the way toward the card's own Warm Sand (now fabric F here) rather than toward an unrelated colour, so the ground still reads as this card's own palette, just warmer. Still the lightest of the six, so it keeps the ground at the same share of the quilt. -
Fabric B
#BEA88BNOT ON THE CARD. Chosen to fill the sixth slot: the midpoint between the sand and the soft brown, since the card has five swatches for six fabrics. -
Fabric C
#7A3E2Bprinted on the card as Dark Terracotta Brown. Darkest, so it anchors — moved from fabric B to fabric C, 2026-10-12, once the ground darkened: re-scored across every arrangement with the new ground colour fixed, and this is the best of those, cutting the softest-seam share from 16.55% to 11.82% at no cost to the 0% actually lost. -
Fabric D
#7A8466printed on the card as Muted Olive Green — the only true green in the palette. -
Fabric E
#A48A6Fprinted on the card as Soft Brown. -
Fabric F
#D7C5A6printed on the card as Warm Sand.
What it does to the seams
Checked against all 14 fabric pairs weighted by how much seam length each actually shares in this quilt, against every arrangement of the six colours (re-scored 2026-10-12 once the ground deepened, with the ground itself held fixed). The best loses none of it — 0% of the seam length falls below 1.25 contrast. The softest pair is the ground against the warm sand, at 1.35, on 8.8% of seams. Lightness range 57, one dark, one clear light.
- Seams that will not read
- 0.0%
- Soft seams
- 11.82%
- Lightness range
- 57
- Reads as
- Shapes
Contrast is measured on screen colours, not on fabric. It tells you where the piecing will disappear, not which bolt to buy.
