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!
Summer Garden was one of the first patterns I released back in 2018. When I started to move forward with the Garden Series idea at the end of last year, I knew I was going to have to revisit this pattern. If it's possible, I'm even more in love with the pattern now!
I took out the sashing and cornerstones for a more modern look, and I slightly modified the sawtooth block in the center to make better use of the fabric requirements. I also added more size options. Summer Garden now includes four sizes from baby to bed, and it is FQ friendly!
When picking the colors for the new cover quilt, I wanted to stay true to the original pattern and use oranges and yellows. I added in a bunch of teals to the mix and the result is the perfect summery palette! The cover version is the Throw Size version and I went with the ten half yards option.
Fabrics I used in the cover 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!
From there it's just a matter of mixing and matching the fabrics! I have such a fun time with this part. With the colors I used, there isn't really any "bad" combo, but I love tweaking it until it's ~just~ right.
My favorite way of doing this is just laying them all out on the floor. Of course, if you have a design wall, you can totally use that too. It'll save your back and knees if you are indecisive and end up mixing and matching for a long time. Ask me how I know... Ha!
I'm so happy with how my new Summer Garden cover turned out. It's even more perfect than I envisioned when I was planning everything! And I love that it fits in so nicely with Spring Garden now too.
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And for such a fun and summery quilt top like this, of course it had to be quilted up with a super cute design. The pantograph I chose is called Perfect Posy. Isn't it perfect!? Kristy Armstrong of @ohsewkristy got this quilted up for me! A big round of applause is needed for this beauty! 👏
Backed in Ruby Star Society print Strawberry Seeds in Dark Teal. And I loved it so much that I used it for the binding fabric too! It is the perfect pairing to go with the darkest blue I used in the top. Plus, it's not too busy of a print and doesn't compete with all of the fun happening on the front!
With the re-release of the Summer Garden Quilt, the Garden Series is halfway complete. If all goes well, I'm planning to release Winter Garden late 2023 and Autumn Garden in early 2024. But we will see! What do you think they will look like? I'd love to see your guesses in the comments!
If you'd like to purchase a copy of Summer Garden, you can use the buttons below. Thank you all so much for the constant support! I wouldn't be here without all of you and that deserves the biggest of thank you's! I can't wait to see what you all make using my quilt pattern!
Keep scrolling to see more pretty Summer Garden Quilt pictures!
So, full disclosure. I have never been particularly drawn to batiks. They are great, just not my style. Then I got a box of batiks from Michael Miller as part of their brand ambassador program.
My first impression was "wow these are beautiful!", but I was still a little unsure of what to make with them. Something mix and match? Something smaller like a quilted tote? In the end, I decided on one of my older patterns: Summer Garden.
I haven't made a Summer Garden quilt in a while, and in my opinion, it really lets these batiks shine! I liked that each print could be the focal point as its own flower. I paired each batik with Cotton Couture from my FQ bundle of new colors (and, seriously, how nicely did THAT work out!).
I made the throw size which is a really generous throw. I did my go-to serpentine stitch spaced about 2" apart to quilt it. This quilt is going to squishy and soft, perfect for the couch, after its been washed. My 4 year old daughter can't wait. She says the fabrics are "very hungry caterpillar" fabrics which she loves!
The Summer Garden Pattern is now available in my shop!
When my old college roommate asked to make a quilt for her baby girl, I started sketching out some flower ideas. I prefer traditional piecing to appliqué, so I was playing with a traditionally pieced flower with a sawtooth star center. And that's how Summer Garden Pattern was born. My friend ultimately decided to go with an appliqué pattern (see that quilt here!), and I made this one anyway because I loved it so much.
This is my most versatile pattern to date. I've written instructions for a large crib size (40" x 53") using 12" finished blocks and a throw size (56" x 74") using 16" finished blocks. Since the pattern is block based, you make any quilt size you want by choosing how many of which size block you need.
The pattern is written to get two flower blocks from one cut of fabric. The 12" finished blocks have instructions from FQ or yardage. The 16" finished blocks only have instructions from yardage, but if you wanted to use a FQ you definitely could! However, for the 16" size, a FQ will only provide enough fabric for one flower block, so you would need extra FQs depending on how big you wanted your quilt to be.
My version was made entirely from fabric I had in my stash. Some of the fabric didn't have a selvedge or didn't have identifying information on the the selvedge, so unfortunately, I don't know where all of it came from! The combination of orange, peach, and pink makes it feel bright and summer-y.
For the backing, I stumbled across this in a fabric sale. It was like this fabric was made to be the back of this quilt. The blue flowers provides a nice, calming contrast to the brightness of the front. The pops of orange and red flowers mixed in with the blue perfectly compliments the front.
Similar to Snowflakes in July, this pattern is a suitable for a confident beginner. A tutorial on the No Waste Flying Geese method can be found here, and be on the lookout for an in depth tutorial on the Magic 8 HST method coming soon. The most complex part of this pattern is paying attention to the direction of the HSTs, ;)
As I stated earlier, I originally sketched this out as a concept for a custom quilt. When the client chose a different option, I still fleshed this out to see what it could turn into.
Compared to the drawn-out process for Snowflakes in July, this came together really quickly. It's been fun to share the process in real time as I've put it together.
I made the large crib size with 12" finished blocks.
My fabulous tester, Joanne (@turtlequilterjo) made the throw size with 16" blocks. I love how she used a blue background for hers!
Click Here to see the Flying Geese tutorial.
Click here to download the No Waste Flying Geese Reference Sheet.
Be sure to tag me (@runningstitchquilts) or use the hashtags (#summergardenquilt or #rsqpatterns) so I can see what you make! :)
