Welcome to the first ever Color Inspiration blog! 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 this month's color inspiration, I wanted to start with colors pulled from the cover quilt of this month's Pattern of the Month - Spring Garden.
The cover quilt of Spring Garden featured a fabric selection of these beautiful blues and pinks from the Michael Miller Cotton Couture line. Honestly, I think about this quilt often and have to talk myself out of using them in all quilts forever.
Of course, I didn't want to use this full fabric pull as a jumping-off point, so I had to narrow it down. I picked these four colors called Spa, Lagoon, Celestial, and Orchid from the Michael Miller Cotton Couture solids fabric collection. I felt like this was a good place to start since it had a good mixture of light, medium, and darks colors. Gotta love color theory!
In the first color palette, I wanted to show you all how I originally built out this full palette for the Spring Garden cover quilt. All fabric colors included in this fabric pull are used in my original Spring Garden quilt sample. My design inspiration for this was very much the Spring season. I wanted to make it my own spin on Spring colors! I typically lean more towards blues and purples in my quilting life, so it only felt natural to do the same for this! I threw in some mints and pinks like Mist, Seafoam, Iris, and Pink to give this palette a well balanced feel. I just love how well these colors distribute out in the Hurrication quilt mockup!
In this second color palette, I went with more jewel tones in saturated purples and oranges. I saw the original four colors as part of a sunset and ran with it! You can see how the addition of Raspberry, Shell, Coral, and Orange really brings the sun aspect into the color palette and gives it a lot of warmth. You can see that especially in my Deltille quilt mockup!
In this final third color palette, I kept to the softer, pastel tones but leaned more into purple instead of the teals/blues of the original Spring Garden cover quilt palette seen in the first section. For the purples, I knew I had to include Twilight, Blackberry, Jam, and Jewel - they are just such good colors! I love how they play off of each other in the Chevron Points quilt mockup.
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 March 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!
If you've been around for a while, you might remember I had an obsession with the original Warp and Weft line by Alexia Abegg for Ruby Star Society. I am hoarding FQ bundles of that line and the second warp and weft collection she came out with. I was lucky enough to get my hands on some of the newest collection, Warp and Weft Honey, several months ago so I made a Chevron Points with it.
I wanted to show an example of the split chevron style with prints instead of solids and one without doing an ombre/gradient. These fabrics fit the bill for that perfectly!
With a pattern like this, working with directional prints like stripes can be tricky, so I took extra time to line up at many of the stripes as I could, and I think that extra effort was 100% worth it. It didn't workout in every case, but when it did it looks good!
I wanted to use as much of the fabrics as I could, so I took the leftover pieces I had and pieced the backing. It is my favorite things about this quilt because it is extra soft and squishy having woven fabrics on the front and back. It was a little tricker to baste and quilt due to the stretchiness of woven fabrics and I ended up with a few puckers on the back. Honestly, I'm okay with it that way. They won't be noticeable once I wash the quilt and start using it!
I used a black metallic stripe for the binding. You can't go wrong with stripes for the binding. It's my favorite way to finish off a quilt top!
I loved making this one. It is definitely going to be a favorite in our quilt rotation!
Fran of Cotton and Joy in one of my favorite quilty friends. When I found out she was working with Riley Blake Designs on her first fabric collection, I immediately started thinking about what I would make with them.
I initially planned on making a Desert Charm quilt, but then I wrote the Chevron Points pattern. The Modern Solids version of Chevron Points is perfect for showing off prints - and I really wanted to show off the prints!
For this baby quilt, I picked four of my favorite prints from the Daybreak collection plus one extra for the accent. The little bees are my favorite. I smile every time I see them!
I quilted my standard straight lines about 3/4" apart. This has become my go-to for when I have to quilt something myself. It's easy and quick.
Because I didn't use all of the prints I originally selected, I pieced them together for the backing. Making pieced backings is my new favorite obsession. It helps keeps the cost down since you aren't buying extra yardage for the back, it helps keep my fabric stash to a minimum since I don't like storing fabric, and it's just fun. :)
I went with my favorite binding option - stripes!
I really really love everything about this quilt. :)
This pattern has been a long time coming and it is finally available in PDF or PRINTED formats in my shop!
I originally designed and wrote this pattern for Make Modern Magazine back in July 2021. In order to release this one as a stand alone pattern, I made a tiny design tweak, added two more sizes, and one design variation. I'm thrilled with the end result!
For my new cover sample, I went with a moody purple/teal/blue range. I'm really loving this color combo right now. I used Cotton Couture solids from Michael Miller Fabrics in: Eggplant, Venus, Mauve, Iris, Powder Blue, Glass, Ocean, Teal, Cadet, Slate, Wedgewood, and Ice Blue. I used Soft White for the background. (I'm selling these fabrics in a kit here if you want to make the same one!)
My favorite thing about this pattern is the combination of light and dark tones of the same color in each column. I think it gives it a fun, playful look. However, sometimes you just want to show off the prints a bit more. So I added a design variation that has the whole chevron one color. Both designs are awesome if I do say so myself!
As usual, I sent my cover sample to Jill of J.Coterie quilting for long arm quilting. She chose a geometric panto that complements the chevrons nicely. I always think she does a great job picking a quilting design and scale for the quilt!
This one is backed and bound with the middle blue color.
Now for the pictures!
My latest Michael Miller project has had me working with these sweet, sweet baby prints from their To the Moon and Back collection. I love the soft grays and yellows. When I was pregnant with my oldest daughter, gray and other neutral colors featured heavily in her nursery. I would have LOVED this collection to make her a baby quilt back then.
I wanted to feature the prints in a quilt so I chose my Chevron Points pattern that was published in Make Modern magazine. In the original pattern, each side of the chevrons were a different fabric. In this version, I made each chevron out of one print. I love the simplicity of this version. Writing this pattern in multiple sizes in on my to-do list for next year, and I definitely plan on including this design variation.
I went with a zig zag stitch spaced a little more than an inch apart for quilting. I thought the zig zag would be an appropriate complement to the chevrons. It is quick, easy, and perfect for a baby quilt.
The backing is my favorite print in the collection. These sweet yellow and gray rainbows are just perfect. I used a darker gray polka dot print to bind.
Check out the full collection HERE and the issue of Make Modern that includes the Chevron Points pattern HERE (affiliate link).
