Color Wheel Exploration

This month I have continued with the online workshop led by Rachel Hauser with her book The Quilter's Field Guide to Color. We've been working with the color wheel, not going into all the scientific theory, but using it to broaden our palettes. First up was making some of the basic arrangements of color: analogous, complementary and triadic. I based my color combinations on a 12-color scheme. You know: red, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, and the colors in between. For each arrangement, we were to choose an anchor color. I chose teal. I forgot to photograph my swatch wheel, but you can see the swatches in the block photos below. Here are my analogous swatches with my interpretation in fabric of the colors next to each other on the wheel: blue-green, green and yellow green (or teal, emerald, lime)

For a complementary scheme, here's my pairing of blue-green with red-orange (or teal and papaya/coral):

And then, triadic, with blue-green, red-violet and yellow orange (or teal, boysenberry, goldfish):

What these photos don't show is the exploded fabric bomb that was left in my living room and family room and maybe even on the bed in the guest bedroom by the time I was done with this exercise. I was most comfortable with my choices for the analogous color scheme, and I can see myself making a quilt in this scheme. I've always had a little difficulty with complementary because I feel like it can be really strong, but I suppose that's where value and proportion of colors comes in, which is likely an exercise for another day. I'm not at all sure about the triadic scheme. These are not colors I would ordinarily put together, but that's the point of the process, right? To explore some ideas that are new for me. Here they are all together without their labels:

After that initial dip into the color wheel, we moved on to a full wheel for the next exercise.
Here is my attempt to arrange the basic color swatches with all the ones in between:

At some point either all those swatches on the right ran off to plan a mutiny or my mind just got really tired. But if you look closely, you can see there is a fairly complete circle in there somewhere. You can see that I was all hung up on values and not quite sure what to do with some of those swatches. After that task, we were asked to make a 12-color wheel using some specified colors and then make a block of four Bear Paw blocks in a rainbow arrangement of fabrics matching those colors. Here's my wheel, not very wheel looking, I know, but you get the idea. I started out with a couple of different colors for the pink and minty green, but I had to change them based on my fabric availability.

And then the blocks:

Isn't that a fun way to make a color wheel? I didn't sew my blocks together, as I have other plans for these eventually. How about a closer look with the labels?

And some close-ups. (I love color names!)

Autumn, Peony, Boysenberry

Tiger, Pineapple, Lime

Clover, Aloe, Teal

Cornflower, Bahama, Blackberry

I enjoyed that! Moving right along, we dove into the variations of hues for the next exercise: hue, tint, tone and shade. Here were my picks for swatches of each of the six basic colors of the wheel:

Then we expanded them into 12-color wheels. I skipped the first column, with the basic hues since I had already worked with that in the previous exercise. I found that it was pretty easy for me to choose the basic six colors, but expanding them to 12 was more challenging. Here is my pastel wheel:

I was surprised to find that I had enough fabric to represent the wheel, because I'm not particularly fond of pastels.

 Here's the dusty tints wheel:

I knew it would be fairly easy for me to make up a fabric wheel. I must have a bazillion dusty fabrics from the 80's and 90's. Those were about the only fabrics we could get at that time, it seemed. Everything had a grayish look to it. I still have so many bits, and find myself rejecting them a lot in projects because they can really look dull to me now, especially with more modern fabrics. But I do use them in rainbow scrap projects.

And then the jewel shades:

It blows my mind that there is no yellow in this wheel. But every one I picked did not look right to me. So of course, I had to look up why. Well, it seems that when you mix black with a color to make a shade, you get green when you add it to yellow. Who knew? I didn't. I'm sure that a jewel colored quilt would look fine with a spark of gold, though. Here are my fabrics:

And finally, the blocks I made to go with these. I only made one pastel, because I just wasn't feeling it. And then, a couple more in dusty tones.

For the pastels, I used Pigeon, Lemon, Ballet, Buff and Pistachio. The dusty blocks have Pewter, Cayenne, and Asparagus and Malachite, Coral, Gold and Mauve.
I ended up making four jewel blocks.

Top left: Moss and Raisin
Top right: Iris and Sunrise
Bottom  left: Ruby and Hunter
Bottom right: Ruby, Olive and Denim

I did try to follow some of what I learned about pairings from the first color wheel exercise, but mostly I just had fun with it. I think my biggest challenge (problem? opportunity?) was the limitations of fabric designs/color I have available. It turned out that my favorite of these blocks is the bottom right one above. I paired a modern print with a tiny, very old sprig print that I would never have thought to do before I made this block. It somehow works!

Okay, if you're still with me here, one more exercise: a simple one focusing on variations in value with a monochromatic color scheme. I really enjoyed this one, and am tempted to cut up all my bits of fabric into a zillion Bear Paw blocks just following value. First I took a photo of all my swatches and turned it into grayscale because I have a really had time detecting differences in value without doing that. 

Then I made four sets of monochromatic color schemes. (We only had to do one, but I'm an overachiever. Ha! Or maybe just having fun.) 

In grays:

Maybe not quite enough difference in the darker blues, but it worked out okay.

I chose three fabrics for most of the blocks even though I show four colors for each. Some of the background fabrics seem to be a cross of the two lighter swatches. 
Top left: Pistachio, Seafoam, Apple Green, Moss (I tried to mix warm and cool greens.)
Top right: Ice, Surf, Sea Turtle, Teal
Bottom left: Cloud, Sky, Peacock, Mineral
Bottom right: Buff, Orange, Flame, Cloves (I do like that orange one. I have lots and lots of rust from back in the olden days. Maybe I can resurrect them with some lighter oranges in a quilt someday.)

And here they are in gray:

So, whew! Those are my workshop exercises for the month. I was going to add a couple of photos of other things I'm working on because I actually have two(!!) RSC19 quilt tops finished. But this is plenty long enough. I'll share those soon. 

I hope you have had a good weekend, and if you are in the US, I hope you are having a wonderful extended Memorial Day weekend. Please, please, please be careful and safe. And, as our country tries opening up, remember, in the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, "With freedom comes responsibility." We are not out of the woods with this whole virus thing, and we must do all we can to keep each other safe. Wear a mask, stay far apart, wash your hands. (My advice? Stay in and quilt.)

I'm linking up with Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap, as there are a lot of old scraps in this post.

(Just a reminder: I'm not affiliated with any company, so when I mention products, services, or stores I'm just documenting what I used or liked.) 

Putzing Along

How everything has changed since my last blog post. It's hard to concentrate on anything for very long. Some days have been consumed with concerns about family members or with planning for basic necessities, or if I am honest, lots of negativity about the current state of our union as states and central government. There are lots of other emotions, too. I'm sure you can relate.

But I have been doing some sewing, putzing along. (There is some mask making, a necessary task, but not one I really want to document). Aside from a project that I'm not ready to share (it's going slowly anyway, and now I have literally set it aside for a bit until I figure out the next step), I have been doing just a bit of quilt-related sewing thanks to a book I had ordered to celebrate my birthday a long, long time ago. Here's what I've made so far:

 Here is the book:

For six months, author Rachel Hauser is leading us online through chapters of the book, encouraging us to complete two or three challenge tasks a month to learn about using color in quilts. I've completed three challenges so far, sharing them on Instagram, but I want to document them here, too. And this is a good way to keep myself writing a bit. The block suggested in the book is Bear Paw, which is a quick sew and fun to make.The book contains a set of card stock swatches to explore color along with suggestions for translating the swatches into fabric. 

The first challenge was working with Temperature (warm and cool colors). I found myself confusing temperature and value, so I made pairs of warm and cool greens and purples in lighter and darker values. Once I made that decision, the exercise was easier for me. 
Here are the color swatches I chose:

and the interpretations in fabric:

The second challenge was working with Seasons. The first step was to choose eight swatches for each season. Here are mine:

                          From left to right: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter

For Spring, I thought of all the colors I see in my yard--the softening blue of the sky, yellow-green of the leaves, purple hyacinths, yellow daffodils, and colorful tulips. My swatch choices: Sky, Rose, Chartreuse, Milk, Lemon, Iris, Strawberry, Orange. 

For Autumn, I again pictured nature: vivid skies, colorful leaves, dried foliage and late blooming perennials. Swatch choices: Sapphire, Chili Pepper, Hunter, Cinnamon, Goldfish, Mulberry, Ruby, Flame. 

My winter palette is perhaps a bit unusual: snow. We usually think of snow as white, but if you look at photos or paintings of snow, you see that it is really many colors from reflections and shadows, so I tried to choose pale versions of the eight colors in the lesson. My swatch choices were cloud, ballet, seafoam, ice, cornmeal violet, primrose and buff. 

Although nature was my inspiration for those three seasons, Summer made me think of beach accessories--flip flops, beach balls, umbrellas--so I chose bright, sunny colors. Swatch choices: Turquoise, Flamingo, Emerald, White, Pineapple, Blackberry, Autumn, and Tiger.

Translating color swatches into fabrics was more challenging. At first, I was trying to find fabrics that would coordinate with the blocks I had made for the Temperature challenge. Once I got rid of that idea and treated each block as it's own exercise--not part of a quilt, I felt freer to do whatever worked to interpret my swatches. For the Spring block, I focused on the purple hyacinths (they are the first flowers to bloom in our yard), the sky, and the new leaves. 

Next, I worked on the Winter block. I had a scrap of a Kaffe Fassett print that had a version of the colors I was thinking of.

But when I laid it out, it seemed more vivid than I wanted. So I turned it over, for a paler version and paired it with a pale blue and an icy white. The result is really low volume, but it does seem a bit like snow drifts, I think.

I feel like I kind of cheated on the Autumn block. I had the perfect batik that had all of the colors in it as well as the right print. I just had to use it paired with a lively, clear autumn sky and the color of already-dried leaves on the ground.

I dithered over the Summer block for awhile. I had a wonderful tropical print that would have been fun, but it had some colors that weren't quite like the ones in my swatches. I had another print that reminded me of beach balls. It also had a few additional colors, but they weren't as noticeable and still had all the feels. Thinking of the color blocks in beach balls and umbrellas, I chose bright solids for the rest of the block. Fun, fun, fun.

Disregard those wrinkles. Long-crunched-up fabric pressed with a dry iron.

Here are the four blocks together. It would be challenging to put them all together in one quilt, but now that I'm not thinking that way, it's okay. 

The third challenge was color as Emotion. I have a confession to make. I started with fabric instead of swatches for this one. I had some prints that I love that make me feel various ways, and I think that the prints as well as the colors are what evoke the emotions. In fact, after I pulled the prints and was reading the chapter, I saw that Rachel does talk about the types of prints that might be used in this challenge. So it's all okay. Choosing the swatches was fairly easy then, and when I looked at them away from the fabrics, they still conveyed the emotions to me. How interesting. And now I know that were I to choose more solid or tone-on-tone fabrics, the interpretation might be the same. Something to explore further after this workshop is over.

So, the emotions. I have a lot of emotions right now. None of them are ones that I'd be likely to interpret in a quilt. I have a feeling that when this virus that has gripped our whole world is more of a memory, many quilters will have made quilts that commemorate this time period in one way or another. I would imagine that the ones that show our true feelings will be art quilts--not quilts that give snuggly comfort. What colors are anger, irritation, sorrow, despair, anxiety, fear... need I go on? I know there are other more positive emotions associated with thankfulness, gratitude, and admiration for all those workers that persist in helping others, and there will likely be quilts that commemorate those emotions, too. I couldn't deal with any of the negative emotions right now. I wanted to make blocks that might actually go into a quilt that would give someone positive feelings, because those are the kinds of quilts I like to make. Here are what I chose instead. 

Contentment 

No surprise to me, this fabric also reminds me of beautiful days at Lake Michigan--the sky, the water, grass and foliage, and sunshine. Contentment. Just breathe. Relax. Take in the view. Be at peace. Aah. There is a tiny bit of pinkish-red in that fabric that I could have included in the swatches, but the four other colors represent the feeling to me the best. Swatch choices: Gold, Apple Green, Bahama, Denim.

Nostalgia

I've had that print fabric for quite awhile. If you look closely, it is has an intentionally faded look. It makes me think of a "simpler" time, which yes, I know was not really all that simple, but that's how nostalgia works, right? The peachy background fabric is from a very old set of fabrics I have that were based on the marbled paper or cloth that used to be used as linings of book covers. I loved those fabrics long ago, and that makes me nostalgic right there. Fabric pattern affects how these colors make me feel, but the swatches do it, too. Swatch choices: Peach, Malachite, Olive, Shell.

Sense of mystery

When I first saw this fabric, I thought "mysterious." But I wasn't sure if that qualified as an emotion. So I looked it up. Well, there is so much out there about labeling emotions. There are the usual 5 basic ones (only one positive one, by the way), but there are lots of expansions of them, and one I found was "sense of mystery," the feeling that makes us seek out certain thrilling books or movies. So okay, let's go with that. I chose 5 swatches for this one because it really needed the silver to complete the theme. Yup, looks mysterious to me. Swatch choices: Black, Mauve, Wine, Jungle, Silver.

Here are the three blocks together. 

Of the three challenges, I enjoyed this last one the most. Maybe that's because of those fabrics that already suggested emotions to me. I certainly did look at colors in a new way. But I think I learned something from all of the challenges so far, and I know that these will help me expand my ideas for future quilts. I had intended to use the challenges in this book to expand my quilt stash with newly purchased fat quarters. Now that I'm sheltering at home, I'm somewhat limited by what I have on hand. I do not have many fabrics that both match my swatch choices and are large enough to cut a 4 1/2 inch square for the paw parts of the blocks. But I'm going to make this work. It's been a good way to keep me going when I often have little or no energy for creativity. Once I get myself involved in a challenge I can almost feel like life is normal for a little while. 

These little blocks take some time to plan every two weeks but very little time to sew. So, now that I've set aside my secret project, I'm going to go back to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks I made during the past year. I've already trimmed some blocks and have sashing strips ready to sew to them. 

There you have it: my second post of this year. I don't want 2020 to slip away without documenting my projects. Thanks to Rachel for her book and her online workshop to keep me quilting in the time of Corona. There will be more posts as I complete the rest of the challenges.

I hope you are all staying safe and well. I know many have concerns that can't even be articulated right now. Let's all work together in whatever way we can. For some, that means risking their lives to serve others, and we need to be forever grateful to them. For others, it is just being--staying in isolation. The line of a poem by John Milton keeps running through my head: "They also serve who only stand and wait." [Update: I originally attributed this line to William Blake. I guess my brain is putzing along, too, because it just occurred to me that I was wrong.]

Do take care.

I'm linking up this week with Kellie at My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday, Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop, and with Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap. Thanks to all these women who keep us going with quilting projects and social contact. 

(Just a reminder: I'm not affiliated with any company, so when I mention products, services, or stores I'm just documenting what I used or liked.) 

Daycare DrEAMi

"Gramma, did you bring your sewing machine?" It was the first thing my granddaughter asked when we arrived at her house last week to help out with a bit of daycare. But I didn't have my machine. We had taken the train and had packed super light. Turns out, we didn't need it.

L had checked out this book from the library:
                                     
What a neat book! I'm not affiliated with any company, so when I mention products, services or stores, I'm just telling you what I used or liked, but this book has wonderful, kid-centered projects that are presented so clearly, with minimal required materials and steps. And they are all the kinds of things kids would find useful for themselves or for gifts. Pillows, stuffies, purses and bags, wallets, pin cushions, needle holders, etc.. My granddaughter's favorite part is the quotations from actual kids with their projects.

Anyway, she wanted to make a pillow, and there were directions for hand sewing, so the next evening away we went with her mom for a girls' night out to the big box store for all things sewing related. I recommended using fleece for her project so we wouldn't have to worry about frayed edges. She did a great job (by that, I mean she didn't dither for hours like I would have) of picking out a fleece print she liked from the thousands (or so it seemed) of options. Corgis!! We made a quick stop in the notions department for a pack of chenille needles, a needle threader, and a hank of perle cotton, and then grabbed a bag of filling, and we were done. 

On Friday, while her brother was having squishy-bat-and-ball spring training baseball batting practice in the basement with Grampa, L made her pillow. There are patterns in the book, but L wanted her pillow to be larger than the one included, so she drew an oval pattern on a big piece of paper--folding the paper in quarters first--and cut it out. I helped her cut a section of the middle of the pattern out so she could position it around the corgi she wanted on her pillow. She carefully safety pinned the pattern to the fleece and cut around it. Then she flipped the pattern over and positioned it around a different corgi for the back, and used that as a guide to lay her first pillow piece upside down to cut around for the back. That way there would also be a dog centered on the back. (I wish I had taken more photos.) Here she is cutting the back side of the pillow. I laid my hands on the fleece to keep it from shifting; otherwise, the work was all hers.

Before sewing, she made a "bobbin" to wind her thread. I showed her how based on my experience with using scrap boxboard and then discovered that the directions are in the book. The authors have really thought of everything!! L basted the pillow with safety pins to keep from getting poked while she sewed. The book does a great job with photos to show how to thread a needle, tie a knot and sew a running stitch or a whip stitch. I recommended a running stitch for her first hand sewing experience since we didn't have to worry about fabric fraying. So, in no time at all, L was stitching the pillow together right sides out so the edge of the pillow would be a decorative edge--no turning right-side out needed. Pulling the chenille needle through the fleece was a bit labor intensive, but with encouragement--and a couple of snack incentives for getting halfway and finishing the sewing--she made it all the way around the pillow. 

Then came the stuffing part, feeling it for cushy-ness, and sewing the last bit of the edge closed. And here is the proud owner with her new pillow. The front:

And the back:

This was a quick project that could be completed in a morning. So satisfying. And L was able to do it herself with just a bit of guidance and support with the end knots. She has enough fleece left for some other projects, so maybe a stuffie or two will join her pillow. 

Although this is not a quilty post, this was a DrEAMi (Drop Everything And Make it) of the best kind because, you know, sewing and grandkiddie. It can't get better than that! So I'm linking up with Sandra of mmm! quilts for the DrEAMi link party. (Our train was late getting home on Saturday night, and yesterday I was tired, so this is late linking up, too.)

You might have noticed I have been absent from the blog this year until today. We were sick the entire month of January with post holiday viruses, and until recently I had no energy to do any sewing or much of anything else. I didn't even get anything made for RSC, and I've not kept up with other people's blogs. I'm back sewing again now, but my current project is one I can't share quite yet, and it's taking me longer than expected. Hopefully, I'll get in the groove again with other projects, but until then, blogging may be spotty. I do have a lot of quilty blogs to catch up on. I did catch one the other day and was saddened to discover that Paula B had passed away a few weeks ago. She was such a sweet quilter and blogger. I enjoyed reading about her projects and donations, and receiving her insights and encouraging comments. It looks like there's going to be a special blog hop to celebrate her legacy. To learn more, go over to Janice's blog here.

Okay, time to link this up. I hope you are having a good quilty week.

2019: Looking Back and Ahead

Happy New Year (almost, as I write this)! Time to sum up the year. I wasn't going to do this, because I generally didn't do blog posts this year unless I had a finish--except for Rainbow Scrap Challenge and Throwback Thursday posts. But it is fun to look back and see what I made, and how much. Much more than I thought. How to do this most efficiently. How about some photo collages? First: everything that I finished.

23 projects! I never would have guessed that, because as the year progressed, I felt like I wasn't getting anything done.

So let's break it down a bit and I'll add some links. I finished 12 quilts of various sizes. 8 were donations.

Clockwise from the upper left (click on the name for a link to the related post):
2 Quilts from the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2018. (January). These were donated to Margaret's Hope Chest for the Mother and Baby program at Pine Rest Hospital.
Strip Quilt for Hands2Help (May). Donated to Mercyful Quilts.
Butterfly Finish (March) Also made for Hands2Help and donated to Em's Scrap Bag for Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo.

Clockwise from upper left:
Modern Puzzle (May) Another for Hands2Help, donated to Mercyful Quilts.
Little Wholecloth Baby Quilt (May) One more for Hands2Help, donated to Jack's Basket.
Dinosaur and Floral Wholecloth Quilts (August) Two small comfort quilts donated to the Socorro Foundation.

Four were for myself or other family members.

Clockwise from upper left:
Mi Barca (April) a wall quilt I made for an art show at my church. This will hopefully be part of a fundraiser for our youth group this coming spring.
Gently Down the Stream Bed Runner (November), made for our bedroom.
Atomic Starburst Christmas Tree Skirt (December), aka Holiday Squirrel, commissioned by my daughter.
Chicago Skyline (December), a baby quilt for my grandnephew. The quilt was given to his parents early in the month. He's brand spankin' new, born on the 28th. Yippee. And I can now tell you that he is Baby B, not M as I called him in the post about this quilt.

I also made 11 other projects. 10 of them were donations.

Clockwise from upper left:
3 doll hospital gowns (February), donated to A Doll Like Me.
2 cosmetic bags and 2 sunglass cases (June), donated to the Safelight Project.
3 pillowcases (August), donated to the Socorro Foundation.
Leaf Block (October). This one is for me. 

So there you have them. I haven't included any links to the organizations or any attributions because you can find all the information by clicking on the related links. I do have a link to my finishes in the label on the right sidebar and at the bottom of this post, except that I suspect it's incomplete, but you can go there instead of clicking on each project link.

So here's just a bit more about the year that I think is interesting. Of the 12 quilts, 2 were holdovers from last year (those first RSC quilts). 5 of the quilts and ALL 11 of the other projects were unanticipated--unplanned for, squirrels or DrEAMi (Drop Everything and Make it) projects, made too popular I think, by Sandra of mmm! quilts. Ha ha. And technically, the baby quilt for my grand nephew was unanticipated since I didn't know he was coming until part way through the year.Looks like squirrels ruled this year.

My other finishes for the year were monthly Rainbow Scrap challenge blocks (two kinds) and the completion of a very long series of blog posts of all my Throwback Thursday quilts--the ones I made in the many, many years before I started blogging. If you are interested, there are "RSC19" and "throwback thursday" labels on the right side bar that link to the ones I remembered to label.

So what's next for 2020? I'm not much of a planner, and since squirrels rule, why plan too much anyway? But here's what I know I'll work on:

Those two RSC19 quilts need to be made from all the blocks I constructed throughout the year. I need to finish handquilting my Hollyhocks quiit that's been in the works for more than a year. And I want to construct a quilt from that leaf block I made in October. So I'll start there in January.

Thanks for looking back and forward with me. And have a very happy and very quilty new year.