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!
For July, I wanted to pull inspiration from a classic, traditional quilt pattern of mine. Rivermill is a modern quilt pattern that takes on the classic pinwheel block. This block-based quilt is a versatile quilt to make because it can be made with fat quarters or half yards. Due to its block-based nature, it can easily be scaled up or down beyond the four sizes include in the pattern!
Before diving into the fun color inspiration palette, I wanted to let you know that the July Pattern of the Month, Rivermill, is on sale through the end of July 2024! You can save $3 on both the printed and digital versions of the Rivermill quilt pattern.
Where were we? Oh yes - the July Color Inspo!
Just like the previous Color Inspo months, I pulled my base color inspiration from the cover quilt of this month's Pattern of the Month. The Rivermill cover quilt was made with Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton solids in the colors Windsor, Cadet, Dresden Blue, Cloud, Sky, Taupe, Parchment, Haze, Shitake, and Ash. This was my first time using brown in a quilt and I have to say - this is one of my favorite color combinations now.
I had so much fun mixing and matching these colors together as I made the Rivermill quilt. This is such a classic color combo, so any color pairing I made turned out fantastic! If you want to look at more pretty pictures of this quilt, check out my Rivermill cover quilt blog post here.
I know I mentioned that the blue and brown color combination was one of my favorite ones, but I figured it would be too difficult to use as a base color palette for this challenge. So I decided to go with a few of the blues for this round! My main colors for the July Color Inspo are Cadet, Dresden Blue, Cloud, and Shitake in Kona Cottons. But since I love Michal Miller Cotton Couture solids so much, I translated them over to that line to get Denim, Delft, Ice Blue, and Haze!
For this first color palette, I leaned into the blues quite a bit and added a teal to the mix. I wanted to go for a "beachy" feel here. The Teal and Denim remind me of the depths of the water, The Delft and Ice Blue remind me of the light reflecting off of the surface, and the Earth and Linen remind of me the sand and pebbles on the beach!
The Rivermill quilt mock-up below really shows off those teal colors in play here. I love how these colors mix together in this quilt pattern. The Noughts and Crosses quilt mock-up screams baby quilt to me!
For this second color palette, I threw some pinks and tans in with the blues! I'm going to be honest, when I think of blue, I automatically think of pink. So this color palette felt like a no-brainer! Cameo and Aulait have my heart in this palette, which balance really well against the Bamboo and Ginger colors.
The pops of pink and tan in the Rivermill quilt mock-up make me so happy. These colors seem to work so well with each other - especially seeing them mixed around in the Hurrication quilt mock-up!
In this last color palette, I had a bit of a harder time. You see, I don't often use greens in my quilts. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I reached for green, actually! So this last color palette was a true challenge. But I am super happy with how these colors look together - I might actually try to use them in a future quilt! The rich colors of Basil and Pine add so much depth to this palette, while the Earth and Pistachio do a great job of grounding.
The Rivermill quilt mock-up feels so much like a "rainy forest" quilt. I love how the earthy tones play together in this quilt. The Chevron Stars quilt mock-up feel lighter and like a breath of fresh air - I think mostly due to the use of Nickel to separate those stars!
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 June 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!
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 June - since it is the month when summer starts - I almost had to feature the Summer Garden Quilt pattern as my Pattern of the Month! How could I not, right? When I took a look back at this quilt pattern, I knew it would be the perfect fit for June's Color Inspo challenge!
Before we get into the fun color palettes, I wanted to let you know that my June Pattern of the Month, Summer Garden, is on sale through the end of June 2024! You can save $3 on the printed and digital patterns.
Okay back to colors!
The colors used in my Summer Garden cover quilt are Michael Miller Cotton Couture solids in the colors Celestial, Nite, Mosaic, Lagoon, Isle, Luna, Sun, Melon, Geranium, and Peach for the Flowers. The Center accent color is Iris, and the background color is Soft White to make everything POP!
I loved how bright these fabrics were and how well they played together. Mixing and matching them in the making process gave me so many new favorite color combinations! If you want to read more about how this quilt came to be, you can read about it here.
It was honestly hard to narrow down the colors from my Summer Garden cover quilt into just 4 colors to use for this Color Inspo challenge, because I just love them all so much. After some color auditioning, I decided to go with Turquoise, Luna, Geranium, and Marigold. I felt like those 4 colors embodied the feel of summer perfectly!
In this first color palette, I wanted to expand on the yellow and coral gradient to give the full color palette a more vibrant summer feel. I'm not going to lie - this color palette has been one of my favorite to create! It's giving a "strawberry lemonade" vibe that I am so here for!
The addition of Bubble Gum, Girl, and Lava, makes this color palette transform into a beautiful youthful palette that can be used in a variety of project types! I love the pops of Marigold sticking out in the Summer Garden quilt mockup below. The vibrant Lava and Lipstick throughout the Rivermill quilt mockup packs a punch!
In my second color palette, I wanted to tie in the feel of a summer beach by adding in some browns and tans. Whether you frequent the beach of a pond, lake, or ocean, I bet the earthy feel of the colors Bamboo, Toffee, and Tan in this color palette make you feel the warmth in your toes and the smell of sunscreen in the air!
While I love the mix of colors in the Summer Garden quilt mockup, I can't get over how great these colors look in the Hurrication quilt mockup! The deep tones of Lavendar and and Toffee balance out the bright colors like Cameo, Geranium, and Marigold nicely.
I my last color palette, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to create a summer sunset color palette. I envision this sunset happening over the water after a long day of fun in the sun. The darker colors of Teal and Lagoon represent the depths of the water and the colors Nite and Jam represent the darkness of the night sky.
In the Summer Garden quilt mockup below, I paired these colors with a classic white background fabric. I always love how colors pop against a white background. But the magic comes when you take a look at the Mountain Valley quilt mockup below! Using those deep tones as the background and star colors in this quilt give it a lovely dusk sky look.
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 June 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!
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!
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 April color inspiration came from the cover quilt colors of my April Pattern of the Month - Desert Charm. (In case you missed it, all Pattern of the Month items are on sale through the end of April!)
The cover quilt of Desert Charm featured colors pulled from my baby size Desert Charm quilt in the Modern Solids layout. I used fabrics from the Mayfair fabric collection designed by Amy Sinibaldi for Art Gallery Fabrics for this quilt sample.
I loved this color palette so much that I used these colors throughout the pattern in the diagrams! I knew I had to revisit this palette again for this April Color Inspiration. Turns out I love this palette ever more now! Keep reading to watch how I turn these four colors into three different full and dynamic color palettes!
In the first color palette, I took us to a moody place by adding in grays like Charcoal and Pewter and some dark purples like Aubergine and Eggplant. Adding in these darker colors really helps balance out the inclusion of Burgandy in this color palette - having one dark tone can make it feel a little out of place. These dark colors give the quilts some good depth while allowing the lighter colors like Love and Honey POP! Just look at those yellow tones in the Desert Charm quilt mock-up below!
For color palette number two, I went against the current season and channeled my favorite autumn colors! The addition of the orange colors like Pumpkin and Brick with a bit of peachy goodness like Peach and Geranium makes this color palette almost pumpkin-scented, huh? But in all seriousness, these warm tones ground out this color palette to feel balanced and welcoming. Plus look how good it looks in a gradient in the Deltille quilt mock-up!
For the third color palette, I figured I would play around with colors that are more reflective of the spring season since we are well on our way into the heart of it! I played around with more yellows and greens, because I've been dreaming of spring gardening recently. Adding in Marigold and Candlelight for the yellows and Evergreen and Asparagus for the greens makes this the perfect garden color palette. I saved this one for last, because it looks sooo good in the mock-up of my upcoming quilt pattern, Mod Tops!
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 April 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!
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!
