Welcome to the the Running Stitch Quilts Color Inspiration blog series! In this new series, I'll be diving into the world of color and bringing you practical color palettes. Every month, I'll pick a set of 3 or 4 foundational colors to use in building out fun and expressive color palettes that you can apply to my quilt patterns or any future quilts. Keeping reading for some quilty inspiration!
For September, I wanted to get back into the swing of things after a bit of a break. We skipped August’s Color Inspo, but I had a pretty good reason—my family and I just moved across the states! Now that we’re settled in (mostly), I’m excited to dive back into quilting. This month, I’m drawing inspiration from the warm, rich tones of autumn. The colors I’ve chosen are inspired by my original Autumn Garden quilt pattern, which is a vibrant and fun design that feels just right for this time of year. As the days get shorter and the leaves start to change, those deeper hues and jewel tones are calling my name—and I’m sure they’ll be calling yours too!
Before we dive into the color palettes, I have a little something special to share! The Autumn Garden pattern is on sale through the end of September 2024, and you can save $3 on both the printed and digital versions. This is a great opportunity to grab this pattern if you’ve been eyeing it for a while!
Now, let’s get into the September Color Inspo!
Just like in previous months, I’ve used the colors from my cover quilt as the base for this month’s inspiration. The Autumn Garden cover quilt was made with a mix of Michael Miller Cotton Couture solids, including Adobe, Antique, Aubergine, Celestial, Cinnamon, Currant, Dusk, Eggplant, Ginger, Spice, and Teal against a Soft White background. These colors are perfect for fall, and they’ve inspired the palettes you’ll see below. You can read more about my Autumn Garden cover quilt here on my blog.
For this month’s Color Inspo, I went with Cadet, Aubergine, Cinnamon, and Ocean, inspired by the Autumn Garden cover quilt. These rich jewel tones have a darker vibe that perfectly matches the slowing pace of the upcoming fall season—like nature hitting the snooze button after a busy summer. And let's be honest, these colors pair as well with fall quilting as pumpkin spice does with just about everything else this time of year!
This first color palette was inspired by the warm, earthy tones of a pumpkin patch. The navy blue and teal act as accents that make the oranges and purples really stand out. I love how these colors mix together in both the Autumn Garden and Winter Garden quilt mock-ups. The contrast between the cool and warm tones gives these quilts a vibrant, yet balanced look that’s perfect for the season.
This second palette feels the most like something I would typically use. I’ve been really into neutrals lately, and this palette reflects that love. The combination of soft pinks, deep eggplants, and golden ochres creates a sophisticated and serene look in both the Autumn Garden and Mod Tops patterns. This palette has such a calming effect, and it’s probably why I’m so drawn to it!
The third palette was a bit of a challenge, but I’m thrilled with the result! It’s inspired by a scrappy ombre version of my Hurrication pattern that I made using an ochre and purple palette. I decided to add teals and navy to give it a fresh twist. The Autumn Garden and Square Burst 2.0 quilt mock-ups really bring this palette to life. The varying shades create a dynamic, ombre effect that adds depth and interest to the design.
Playing with color is one of my absolute favorite things to do, and I’m so excited to share these September color palettes with you. Whether you’re inspired by the vibrant warmth of Palette 1, the neutral sophistication of Palette 2, or the gorgeous depth of Palette 3, I hope you find something that sparks your creativity.
I invite you to try out one of these September Color Inspo palettes in your next quilt! Whether you use the exact fabrics or let these serve as a jumping-off point for your own palette, I’d love to see what you create. Share your quilts on Instagram using the hashtag #RSQColorInspo or tag me in your photos.
Stay tuned for next month’s Color Inspiration. Until then, happy sewing!
Welcome to the the Running Stitch Quilts Color Inspiration blog series! In this new series, I'll be diving into the world of color and bringing you practical color palettes. Every month, I'll pick a set of 3 or 4 foundational colors to use in building out fun and expressive color palettes that you can apply to my quilt patterns or any future quilts. Keeping reading for some quilty inspiration!
My May color inspiration came from the cover quilt colors of my May Pattern of the Month - Weavers Cottage. (In case you missed it, all Pattern of the Month items are on sale through the end of May!)
The colors of my Weavers Cottage cover quilt are all from the Michael Miller Cotton Couture collection. If you've been around here for a little bit, you'll know that I absolutely love using Cotton Couture fabrics! I talked all about this cover quilt on my blog if you want to read more about it.
These deep jewel tones have been so inspiring recently. And in the spirit of Weavers Cottage being the Pattern of the Month, I wanted to expand upon these four colors (Blue, Boy, Peony, and Rose) and show you how you can turn them into three different full and dynamic color palettes!
For the first color palette, I wanted to squeeze in as many colors as I could to achieve a nice pink to blue gradient. If you've noticed my past color inspiration blogs, you'll see that I kind of love working with color gradients. So you'll probably be seeing a lot more in the future too!
This color palette has a well-balanced feel to it with the deep colors like Royal, Midnight, and Jewel and the lighter colors like Breeze, Flower, and Blossom included. You can see in both Weavers Cottage and Mod Top (quilt pattern coming soon!) that the distribution of these colors plays well with each other in this scattered form and in the true gradient shown above!
In this next color palette, I added purples and teals into the mix to give it an ocean-y, mermaid vibe that my daughter would LOVE. This color palette still has some deeper colors like Sweet Lily and Lagoon in it, but overall, it feels a lot lighter and breezier. This palette does a great job of lending itself to a scrappy feel like in the Weavers Cottage and Square Burst quilt pattern mock-ups below.
In the final color palette, I added in various shades of purple that really gives it a true jewel tone look! Having Opal and Lilac included here brings in the pink side of this palette while the Grape and Hyacinth brings in the blue side. These deeper colors pop again the white background in the Weavers Cottage and Autumn Garden quilt pattern mock-ups below!
Playing with color is one of my absolute favorite things to do! Being able to blend colors together to create such dynamic color palettes for my handmade quilts makes my creative soul so happy. I invite you to try out one of my May Color Inspiration color palettes in your next quilt! Whether you use the exact fabrics or use them as a jumping-off point for your own palette, I'd love to see! Share your quilts made with my color palettes on Instagram using the hashtag #RSQColorInspo or tag me in your photo. :)
Stay tuned for next month's Color Inspiration. Until then, happy sewing!
Introducing the next iteration in the stunning Garden Series quilt patterns: Autumn Garden Quilt Pattern. This bold flower block works well with prints or solids making it perfect to show off your favorite fabrics. And between us, I have to admit, this one just might be my personal favorite out of the four!
Just like the other patterns in the series, Autumn Garden can be created using fat quarters or half yards. This means that it is the perfect quilt to make using fabrics pulled from your fabrics stash! It's labeled as intermediate, but I believe even a confident beginner could easily take it on.
For my cover version, I selected a vibrant palette of my oh-so-favorite Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids in the colors Adobe, Antique, Aubergine, Celestial, Cinnamon, Currant, Dusk, Eggplant, Ginger, Spice, and Teal against a classic Running Stitch Quilts background fabric of Soft White.
The addition of Ginger and Cinnamon was a bit of a stretch for me. I don't typically use a lot of yellows and browns, but I thought they worked well with the Autumn theme. The final result was simply stunning and I'm so happy I stepped out of my comfort zone for this one. And to add a fun twist, I used a fun Ruby Star Society print for the backing fabric!
As a conscious effort to reduce fabric waste, I challenged myself to use every bit of leftover fabric for a scrappy binding. And I must say, I couldn't be more pleased with the result. If you've never tried a scrappy binding on your quilts before, do it! It's so worth it.
And last but definitely not least, for the finishing touch, my go-to quilter Katie from Modern Textiles used the Hedges pantograph to quilt the cover sample. The result? Absolute perfection. Wouldn't you agree?
