Ten Weeks of Colour Inspiration Tuesday: the Quilt Story chapter that was started almost by accident!
What started as a side project has morphed into a regular part of the Clever Chameleon week! Ten weeks ago I published the first Colour Inspiration Tuesday with the intention of occasionally playing with colour combinations I might like to use in quilts. However, it turns out that making colour palettes can be a bit addictive for someone who loves colour. I have found that it is easy to end up with at least one idea a week. So, Colour Inspiration Tuesday has quickly become a weekly post.
Not only that, but the last few weeks I have found myself contemplating more deeply the possibilities of each colour scheme in quilt design. How would I use these colours and for whom? This has led to Colour Inspiration Tuesday now currently including one or more sketches of simple quilt layouts that use these colours. No patterns yet, so don’t get too hopeful. But they are visualisations of where I would start if I was using these colour schemes to design a quilt. Can you see the escalating pattern here?
Maybe patterns will follow?!
One of these colour schemes (Jewel Tone Triangles) has led to a real quilt that I am in the process of putting together. You can read about the process so far in this post: Jewel Tone Diamonds Quilt.
To access the colour palettes of Colour Inspiration Tuesday available so far, click on the thumbnails below.
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Colour Inspiration Tuesday: a free resource of colour combinations to try on your quilts.
Welcome back to Colour Inspiration Tuesday. Here in Adelaide we are well into winter. We haven’t had near enough rain this year, but today is definitely plenty cold, grey and gloomy enough. What better way to warm up the mood and brighten the day a little than to add a little red?! So, here is the Frosty Berries winter palette with red for warmth and spectacular effect against icy greys. Enjoy!
Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Frosty Berries
The “Frosty Berries” colour palette includes four shades of grey, ranging from dark grey to a cold, lightly greyed blue. These are paired with three magnificent shades of berry red.
I can equally imagine this colour palette being used in strongly masculine geometric quits, bold modern quilts and stunning appliqué designs. This colour palette is very versatile for anyone who likes the combination of cool neutrals or black & white with red. Just vary the amount of red versus the grey. I’m sure you can find your perfect ratio!
Here are some quick and diverse ideas using the Frosty Berries colour scheme.
A modern Frosty Berries quilt layout favouring the greys
A masculine Frosty Berries quilt layout favouring the redsAn appliqué flowers Frosty Berries quilt layoutAnd obviously the same, but with leaves in the mid-red colour
Not celebrating winter today?
Well, today is pretty exciting because Frosty Berries is the 10th official post in the Clever Chameleon Colour Inspiration Tuesday Series, and the 12th colour scheme to be found among the Clever Chameleon blog posts. So I have put together a post of all the Clever Chameleon colour palettes so far. Have a look and see if anything takes your fancy today! Time to get your imagination on for a new quilt project!
Credit
Today’s photo of Frosty Berries is from Unsplash.com. Unsplash is a collection of free, high resolution, “do what you want with” photos. No credit is demanded, but I love to give credit where credit is due. I am always grateful to people who contribute to open source communities. So I would like you to know that this lovely photo was provided by Maria Mekht via Unsplash. Be sure to check out her collection of photos on Unsplash. Maria Mekht
For colour inspiration for your quilts in your inbox weekly follow along by subscribing to this blog. Or follow Clever Chameleon Quilt Colour Inspiration on Pinterest and pin your favourite colour palettes to try later.
P.S. If you would like to use Maria’s photo or another Colour Inspiration Tuesday photo for your own projects, you can easily find all the Unsplash photos from Colour Inspiration Tuesday in one place for free in my Colour Inspiration Collection.
The Jewel Tone Diamonds Quilt Design:My first quilt to be made from Colour Inspiration Tuesday!
A few days ago I was playing around with an idea that arose from Colour Inspiration Tuesday. Remember this?!
Jewel Tone Diamonds quilt design from Colour Inspiration Tuesday
If not, you can find the origins of this quilt idea in this post here – Colour Inspiration Tuesday – Jewel Tone Triangles. Briefly, I used a fascinating photo by Ferdinand Stöhr at Unsplash.com to generate a colour palette I loved. In addition, the photo itself is very geometric. It immediately brought to mind a quilt of 3D triangular pyramids in sweeping colour changes of purples and blue-greens.
Originally I was just going to create the colour scheme and serve it up for Colour Inspiration Tuesday as per usual. But the urge to design a quilt in this colour scheme was too strong. So I ended up using the Jewel Tone Triangle colours, plus two more related tones, to mock up a quick example of a tumbling blocks quilt. This was the original Jewel Tone Diamonds quilt design above. And that should have been the end of that!
But I am a sucker for: pretty colours, new quilt ideas and my daughter……
As it happened, my daughter wandered past as I was finishing that post, and said she really liked That design for Her bed…..**batting eyelids here** AND I was already considering taking a project with me while we travelled for a week for Paul’s work…… AND a local store is having it’s annual sale which means that Prima solid colour flat fats (50cmx52cm pre-cuts) are $1 each, which is 75% off…..
Fabrics for Jewel Tone Diamonds quilt
So, the Voice in my head that must be obeyed said “If I take some fabric with me, I could have a quilt cut out and ready to sew when we get home next week….”
Then the same Voice said “And with fabric at $4 per metre, it is a Very good time to be experimenting with a new design. Even if said fabric is not the best quality that money can buy”.
And I don’t argue with the Voice. :). The Voice is also right about the very average fabric quality, but this can be a bonus when it comes to cutting time… It is sooooo much harder to make that first cut into a beautiful print or batik, especially on an unproven design!! These will be perfect.
Anyway, to cut a long story short…..
I bought 11 different solid colour 100% cotton fabrics in the colour range covered by the Jewel Tone Triangles colour scheme. This is quite a few more colours than in the original colour scheme of 7, I know. But this is what happens when you use something as an ideas springboard and start quilting your own story!
I started with the basic colours of the colour scheme and expanded the colour set with what looked good in the store. The new colour scheme (Jewel Tone Diamonds) now looks like this:
These colours are slightly brighter than the original design, but that’s fine, my daughter and I love bright. More colours gives me more options for variety in the tumbling blocks, and enough fabric to expand the pattern to a single bed size. Brilliant!
Expanding the Jewel Tone Diamonds Quilt design and cutting the diamonds
We have spent this week in Arkaroola, an oasis in the South Australian Outback. So, I have been admiring this view out the laundry door while ironing my pretties ready for cutting! Much nicer than the dismal suburban winter at home!!
It is great being able to share the cutting with my daughter. The GO! cutter allows her to be involved even though she is too young to use a rotary cutter!
I re-designed the Jewel Tone Diamonds quilt to accommodate my 11 fabric colours and to be single-bed sized. I worked out that if I used my Diamonds 4×4 GO! Die, a single bed top would require about 6 diamonds across and 12 rows of tumbling blocks along the length. Then my daughter and I used my GO! cutter to cut out 20 diamonds in each colour for her new quilt and she and I did a test layout of the pieces together.
Passing on the love
My daughter is just beginning to show an interest in quilting, so this project is perfect for her to start participating. Because I have designed this quilt with the diamond GO! cutter die in mind, she is able to help with the cutting. She loves to help cut the pieces by winding the handle. I also got some “help” laying out the pieces. However, since I like to make adjustments on the fly, this is a slightly trickier process to share with my new apprentice!
Diamonds cut out and ready for layout.Starting to layout the Jewel Tone Diamonds.Progress!
Once we had an idea of the number of pieces we would need for each particular colour, we cut more diamonds as needed. This is what our current layout looks like:
In the end we were pretty pleased with our expanded Jewel Tone Diamonds design. So pretty!
Colour Value and the Tumbling Block quilt design
Here’s the most important tip for tumbling block quilts…… It is important to pay absolute attention to the colour values of your fabrics and where you place them. To begin with, you must decide which of the three faces of the “cube” you want to be the lightest, which will be the darkest and which will have an intermediate colour value. Then you have to stick to this decision for each set of three pieces that make up a block. Otherwise the 3D illusion of this design does not work.
My daughter actually grasped this concept pretty well. To help us keep to our chosen regime of lightest value on the top of each cube, medium value on the left and darkest value on the right, we took occasional photos in black and white. This is the easiest way to judge colour value.
To easily judge the colour value of your quilts, take photos in black and white.
A problem and the solution:
The two fabrics on the left and right of this cube unit are actually quite different greens but with the same colour values.
In our colour palette there are two fabrics that I have struggled to differentiate as to which has the darker value. One is fairly saturated in colour (is a hue), and the other is a tone. The toned fabric has been darkened with black, but also diluted with white. So the two fabrics have ended up a similar colour value.
In the end, I have designated the more saturated colour to be the “darker” fabric so that we can be consistent with our layout. Then, when it comes to quilting time, I can help maintain the 3D illusion by quilting the toned fabric with a light thread and the saturated fabric with a dark thread. The overall effect of this will be to darken the perceived value of the saturated fabric and to lighten the toned fabric, preserving the 3D tumbling block design. Sometimes you just can’t get enough absolutely perfect fabric colours when you are shopping for a quilt….. Don’t despair, just think about what else you can do to get the effect you want!
Heading home to sew Jewel Tone Diamonds
Cutting pieces for a quilt, walks in the bush, campfire cooking with the kids and helping with the local war on a Mexican Poppy infestation….. It has been a lovely time away.
Exotic Mexican Poppy weeds are a threat to the Arkaroola ecosystem. Arkaroola is a beautiful rugged landscape and home to the Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby.
It will also be nice to be back at the sewing machine next week. Although…. now that I have all those diamonds cut and laid out, I can see just how many Y-seams I have! Just for the record, I haven’t sewn Y-seams before….. this could be interesting! Anyway, my adorable daughter is being quite insistent that she should sew them. Never mind she has never even sewn a basic seam yet! I have promised to help her to learn how to make a quilt, but obviously (and to her disgust) we will start with something beginner friendly. Now that she is finally showing some interest in sewing, I want her to love quilting….. I’ll keep you posted on that journey too.
In the meantime, we have 680 km to cover to get home. Then I get to have a day at the South Australian Quilters’ Guild Festival of Quilts. The day after that I plan to visit a Tentmakers of Cairo display. What a lovely week to look forward to!
I’ll definitely be checking out lots of quilting stories this week!
Colour Inspiration Tuesday: a free resource of colour combinations to try on your quilts.
Hi – Welcome to another Colour Inspiration Tuesday! When I was first introduced to quilting, the group I met regularly with had a thing about fabrics in rich jewel-tone colours. Specifically, batik collections in saturated turquoise, sapphire, emerald, topaz, magenta and amethyst colours. These were good times, so these colours will always transport me back to the fun afternoons we spent sewing and eating and laughing.
Today’s colour palette was inspired by a photo strong in both geometry and colour. Because the purples, blues and turquoise reminded me of quilts in jewel-tones, we have “Jewel-Tone Triangles”.
Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Jewel Tone Triangles
The “Jewel Tone Triangles” colour palette is amethyst, sapphire and turquoise in several shades of each. These varying shades allow you to create depth, interest and even the optical illusion of 3D by using cleverly placed colour value contrasts.
It is very tempting to sit down and design a triangle quilt (or a tumbling block quilt) in these colours, using the colour transitions in the photo as a muse. I shouldn’t, due to time constraints…..
Of course, I did anyway …….. here is a free layout as an example of how you could use this colour palette (with two additional shades over and above the starting seven Jewel Tones) on a tumbling block quilt.
Play with it until you find Your perfect combination. I just did!
I’m even tempted to make this quilt….. I could cut the diamonds with my GO! die. My daughter has spotted this post and said “Ooooo, I’d like that on My Bed”. Not sure that I am going to make it bed-sized, if it happens at all. Perhaps she can aspire to have it on her wall…. I’ll let you know if this one gets to the top of the ideas queue.
Don’t need rich geometry today? Try something more subtle.
There are several gentler colour schemes within the Clever Chameleon collection already….. why not take a look at Lily Pad Glow or Purple Tulip?
Today’s Photo Credit
Today’s stock photo is from Unsplash.com. Unsplash is a collection of free, high resolution, “do what you want with” photos. If you would like to also use this lovely photo, it was provided by Ferdinand Stöhr via Unsplash for license-free usage. Find more of Ferdinand’s photos here: Ferdinand Stöhr
P.S. For your convenience, I have placed all the Unsplash photos from Colour Inspiration Tuesdays in one place. Find them easily for free in my Colour Inspiration Collection.
Colour Inspiration Tuesday: a free resource of colour combinations to try on your quilts.
Happy Colour Inspiration Tuesday! Today’s palette is “Red-Eye Flight”, inspired by a stunningly intense stare from a bird of prey. This colour scheme is every bit as powerful as the bird looking at you!
Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Red-Eye Flight
The “Red-Eye Flight” colour palette is black, crimson red, stormy grey, limestone grey, pale grey, sienna and fire orange.
These colours lend themselves to a quilt with a strong geometric design. Or take a leaf out of the bird’s book and use the neutral colours for extensive negative space. Then use reds and oranges to piece or appliqué a minimal but vivid design. The result will be a very strong, modern quilt that will be every bit as attention seeking as the inspiration photo.
This colour scheme a bit too strong for the quilt you want to make next? No worries…..
How about a colour scheme with a bit less contrast? Try the blues of “Blue Fox” combined with the greys of “Red-Eye Flight”. This will still give you a great neutral palette to work into the background. You can use the more gentle blue colours to feature your design. The inspiration in Colour Inspiration Tuesdays is just the starting point. Come up with your own fantastic design ideas to make a unique quilt and impress your friends!
Credit
Today’s intense photo is from Unsplash.com. Unsplash is a collection of free, high resolution, “do what you want with” photos. I am grateful to people who contribute to open source communities, so I would like you to know that this lovely photo was provided by Massimo Mancini via Unsplash. Visit Massimo’s collection here: Massimo Mancini
For colour inspiration for your quilts in your inbox weekly follow along by subscribing to this blog. Or follow Clever Chameleon Quilt Colour Inspiration on Pinterest and pin your favourite colour palettes to try later.
P.S. If you would like to use Massimo’s photo or another Colour Inspiration Tuesday photo for your own projects, you can easily find all the Unsplash photos from Colour Inspiration Tuesday in one place for free in my Colour Inspiration Collection.
Ten Weeks of Colour Inspiration Tuesday: the Quilt Story chapter that was started almost by accident!
For colour inspiration for your quilts in your inbox weekly follow along by subscribing to this blog. Or follow 
The Jewel Tone Diamonds Quilt Design: 
In the meantime, we have 680 km to cover to get home. Then I get to have a day at the South Australian Quilters’ Guild Festival of Quilts. The day after that I plan to visit a Tentmakers of Cairo display. What a lovely week to look forward to!
Colour Inspiration Tuesday: a free resource of colour combinations to try on your quilts.
Colour Inspiration Tuesday: a free resource of colour combinations to try on your quilts.