Blue: A Colour Blog Series (+ Winner)

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I am super excited about this month’s color – Blue. I was actually surprised at how often I use it in my own quilts. When exploring my projects, I realized that it is the easiest color, for me, to mix with others….whether it is cooler or warmer palettes.

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At the moment, it is trending too as a featured color with fabric lines/bundles. You have lines such as Cotton and Steel’s Bluebird Bundle, Alison Glass Handcrafted Indigo’s, or Indigo Collection by Michael Miller, just to name a few.

Here are a few of my own project examples, that I hope inspire you all.

Blue + White

I love that porcelain and tiled freshness of blue and white. It reminds me of my visit to Portugal. In this first project, I used Alison Glass Handcrafted Indigos.

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For this mini quilt (36 x 24″) they provide such a great richness that stands out even more when using just a white background (actually Alison Glass White on White Sunprint text).

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This bundle provides a great graduation of shades of blues (monotone) which you could also mimic with your blue prints from your stash. Here are a few, I pulled for you.

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1. Hawthorne Threads; 2. Dear Stella; 3. Lizzie House; 4. Ed Emberly; 5. Carolyn Friedlander; 6. Savannah Lockie; 7. Art Gallery Designs; 8. Wee Gallery; 9. Karen Lewis

Blue + Low Volume

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The new Denim’s that are coming out by Art Gallery Fabrics and Robert Kaufman are so soft, it’s like sewing with ordinary quilting cotton. I recently bought some of Art Gallery Fabrics Denim Studio and really wanted to pair it with some Maze and Vale Low Volumes prints. These low volume prints are white based (or neutral) with hints of red, yellow (triadic=blue, red, yellow), grey, and black in them. I love how the denim strips (of varying blues) pop with the low volumes.

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Blue + Cool

One of my first ever projects, mixed various shades of blue, with aqua’s, greens and low volumes (analogous palette). I did not want to mix the cooler colors in this project, as I think it gave a crisper design aesthetic. This pillow would also work, though, mixing up the cooler colors and separating using the low volumes.

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This next project was actually inspired by a photo of Crater Lake (by Anne Sullivan from Play Crafts). Nature can provide such great color palettes. These blues (Kona Oasis and Prussian) work well with the yellow-greens (Kona Wasabi, Pickle) and the neutrals (Kona White, Shadow).
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Blue + Red

Not quite opposites, the a triadic combination, yellow and/or red also work well with blues. We saw a yellow example last month, here is an example of pulling in red. There is not a lot of red in this pillow but the mix with blue makes the red pop in this project.

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Monthly Tip

The environment around you offers so much color inspiration, that usually we miss seeing on a daily basis. I find that holidays offer the best time for me to open my mind and see things differently. Go through some of your holiday photos, something caught your eye for you to take a photo….you may find some great color palette inspirations.

Here are a few of mine that are great blue based palettes.

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[Photo of buildings along the High LIne, New York]

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[Photo of 42nd Street Subway Station Wall Art, New York]

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[Photo of Street Life in Ericeira, Portugal near Lisbon]

Monthly Resources

Book: Interaction of Color by Josef Albers
Tool: Rainbow Color Selector Wheel (or search on google, or visit an art store to find)

Monthly Challenge

To make a project, whether a block, small project like a pillow or mini quilt with blue fabrics and adding 1-2 other colors. [UPDATED 07 March]

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To help get you started if you are not sure, this block is a great way to use up scraps you may have. You can use this tutorial to make a block, a cushion or a mini quilt.

Come back here for the Guest Post Introduction and Link-up around the 2nd week of the Month (~15th).  The prize this month is:

Winner (from our Yellow Challenge)

Is….Kate who blogs at Chromakate. Kate, I will be contacting you shortly to get your details.

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More details on how the series and posts work can be found in the Blog Series overveiw.
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Ideas = New Designs

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With all the ideas this week, the one thing that did work, was the creation of new quilt designs. They have been following nicely with several this week I would like to make.

22 February

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I loved this color palette. I was watching TV and saw this sign with writing down the side which inspired this design.

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I think, if I make it, I am going to make it in flame and citrus/highlight.22Feb2016(1)

25 February

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I loved the palette but this is not a design I will like. It was inspired by the stamen of the flower. 25Feb2016(1)

26 February

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I decided to try to redo a couple of my favorite designs (originally posted 06 Dec 2014 and 28 July 2014 which I published the finished project on SMS 05 Dec 2014), that used circles but this time add more negative space between the circles.
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I like how this turned out, it will be on my possible make list. I am likely to change the palette though… not sure if I like this masculine palette.  26Feb_2016

28 February

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I am not overly keen on this palette, but I was inspired by the daily post by @designmilk (on Instagram), of this cool hanging like staircase. This is on my make list.

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I think the palette will be something like this with pickle or highlight as the background.28Feb_2016(1)

2 March

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You probably know how much I like a neutral color palette. I just started playing around with the placement of lines. I like how this works and it reminds me of road markings. This is one of my favorites this month. 02MAR_2016

I may have to make at least two versions of this as I like the negative of the above design as well.
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3 March

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I was inspired by a book cover my friend was reading and posted on Facebook. The secondary design/ the look from a distance is interesting. It makes the lines look slightly bent, an optical illusion.
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Here is the design with more repeated blocks. 03MAR_2016(1)

4 March

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I loved the geometric shape of the fans. I was also watching TV, again, and saw a sonar-radar. This is an abstract view of the sonar-radar. This is one of my favorite designs this week (along with 2 March).
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I tried using the pink as well in the design and it just did not work (in my opinion).
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Hope you found some inspiration this week. I will be back tomorrow, with Blue: Colour Blog Series post (and winner’s from last month).

Please Note: If you would like to make or use one of my designs, please email me (ml_wilkie(at)hotmail(dot)com) or leave a comment below. I am happy to talk with you on options and provide the relevant measurements etc. or have you test out a pattern. Also, if you use one of my designs, please use the following text to credit me the design: “Designed by Michelle Wilkie @ Factotum of Arts”.

Ideas != Attention || Focus

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Sitting here thinking of work and programming so I had the urge to use it in my title. So, for my programmer friends out there Ideas != Attention || Focus (Ideas not equal to Attention or Focus). It is crazy, I literally have a stream of ideas at the moment, which is a good thing. The drawback is I have not been able to give enough attention or focus to one project to finish it.

The two projects I would like to finish in the next two weeks are my Spoonflower sampler quilt (only 68 weeks old) and my Mum’s quilt (8 weeks old). I am still quilting the sampler quilt but I probably only have 1-2 hours left on this quilt.

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My Mum’s quilt, I need to baste and start the quilting.
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One of my new projects was based on a design I made in February. I think I am calling it “Beating heart” since it was my inspiration and it was Valentines Day.
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Hopefully, I can finish at least two projects this weekend. Fingers crossed. Linking up with Lee over at Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday (button to the right).