Brown is not an obvious color choice when it comes to modern quilting. It could be though. Brown has a lot of variations to consider, from chocolate to marsala to tan to bronze. Through Quilt Design a Day and the spark color palettes, I have been given several palettes with brown in them that I initially think, oh (flat sounding tone in my voice). Each design has surprised me, in a good way.

Designs: Brown + Neutrals

Designs: Brown + Warm Palettes

  

Design: Brown + Cooler Palettes

Quilt Projects: Brown + Cooler Palettes

This was my first project using browns. The chocolate-colored background is the perfect neutral for this succulent inspired design. I love its interaction with the warmer coral and the cooler green, aqua and mint colors, it’s gives it a richer appearance.

This predominantly brown palette was based on a QDAD spark palette. It was not my usual palette but what tied it together for me was that thumb print design from C+S. It has blues and pinks included in the palette. That lead to me adding those pops of bright blue to the quilt in the back and the binding. I think it adds the interesting factor to the quilt otherwise it could be a little flat/boring.

Umbrella Prints (Fabric) really led to the fabric choices I made for this Bjorn Bear I made from Tartankiwi’s Big bear pattern. The dark brown was positioned specifically at the back, to reflect the shading I imaged for this design. This was the darkest color I had. While the neutral on his face was the lightest color – where I imagined the light would hit on the bear.  Both browns play well with the vibrant green, mint and light blue.

Quilts: Brown + Warmer Palettes

While many folks were adverse to the marsala color of the year, last year….I was excited. I found that the marsala (in the brown family) complement the warmer color palette of yellows,  oranges and deep reds. I was inspired with that color palette using Oakshott Cottons, this Ranger’s Station quilt.

This palette and center block was chosen by Renee over at Quilts of a Feather. It was not a color palette in my wheel house and I was terrified of it. As I worked on the first border design though, it was interesting the variations with the various purples and the great use of the brown as a background color. I loved how this center block and first border turned out.

Monthly Tip

Have you ever considered creating an inspiration board around the colors you are interested in? You see it a lot for weddings, graphic designers and fabric designers. I love the idea when you are exploring a color. Here are links for some examples:

Light Blue and Brown

Brown, Champagne, Nude, Purple

Autumn/Fall Inspired

Yellow, Brown Mood board

If you ever are working with brown’s in your projects and posting on IG (instagram), use #sewingwithbrowns

Monthly Resource

Here is an article that is an interesting read about Working Walls and design thinking.

Monthly Challenge

Using the color brown, create your own design/inspiration/mood board. Think about what other colors would work with brown and then investigate images, print out on paper or use a mosaic tool online to pull your board together.

Next week, I will post the link up (with a prize), and post some fabric options that will support working with brown.

Welcome, I know things are a little different this month….we are doing the guest post first and announcing the winner from last month. I hope this works for you all. My post on Purple, with the challenge (hint: inspiration boards) and link-up will appear this weekend.

Guest Post: Sandi Hazlewood

Sandi is a quilter, garment sewer, pattern designer and podcaster living in San Diego, CA. Known as the Crafty Planner, Sandi blogs at craftyplanner.com and posts on Instagram as @craftyplanner. She is one of the co-founders and first President of the San Diego Modern Quilt Guild along with serving on the Nominations Committee for the Modern Quilt Guild. Her weekly podcasts have featured guests such as Lizzy House, Tula Pink, Denyse Schmidt, Gwen Marston and more.

She LOVES purple! For her blog post, she will show you how the color purple can be combined with almost any color to make visually attractive quilts.

Challenge Winner

I loved seeing the art pieces you all chose and how you translated that into fabric. Such a great job. The winner of the challenge is Toni Jo Sews. I will email you shortly with details.

This month, our guest post is by Heather Jones. Heather is on the top of my list for most inspirational designers. She recently released her book, Quilt Local: Finding Inspiration in the Everyday, which is amazing, as it looks at the world around you and how you can transform that world into your quilt or piece of work. I also love her play with scale. I am looking forward to her new fabric line that was introduced at quilt market last week “Color Dash” (Robert Kaufman Designer).

Her blog post, this month, talks about how she introduced these colors into her quilts and learned to work with them. I think, those who are apprehensive of using coral and/or peaches will find this very useful.

Challenge Link-up

This challenge is a mini research project, and hopefully expanding your inspiration focus. Find an artist (fine arts – oil, printing, painting, drawing) who uses peaches and corals in their work. What other colors do they use with this color palette? Now try to recreate this color palette using your own prints and/or solids. Next week, I will provide you a link-up in the guest post introduction, to add your fabric pull with description of the artist (and link) to the pieces of work you were inspired by.

The prize this month is a 6 piece peach and coral bundle from Art Gallery Fabrics and a $20 Gift card from the Fat Quarter Shop. The link-up is open until 31st May (11:55pm). Winner will be announced in next month’s first post.