Edit colors in a pattern from one vector

Question

I'm having a hard time figuring this out (and phrasing it...sorry) but I'm making a pattern in AI using object > pattern > make and I space out everything the way I want except I want to change the color of the vector in every other one or so and I can't figure out how to do that except adding another vector with the new color into the pattern but if I do that I can't get the right layout... I'll attach some screenshots.

this is the right pattern that I want but I don't want them all to be green...

these are the right colors but as you can see this pattern doesn't repeat...because I had to lay it out myself

Answer 1

Instead of just making a single green one your pattern tile, make a pattern tile with one of each color as shown below in the red box:

Note that the top part of the blue one is actually at the bottom of the pattern tile.

Answer 2

Your pattern needs to already have the color variations in it. You can use the pattern tool with several objects (in this case, the elements in different colors).

This tutorial shows you how to do a pattern with one or several repeating elements: http://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-seamless-pattern-in-adobe-illustrator-cs6--vector-5618