Annabelle's thoughts on Color Intensive

This December four guests will share their experience of taking one of my original classes.  I hope that, through their eyes, you will be able to see which Stitched in Color course would best meet your stitchy needs.  Feel free to follow up with questions!

You'll be able to vote on your top 2 class choices starting December 15th!  Two classes will encore early 2015.  See this post for more details.

Today let's welcome Annabelle Gardner, a Flickr friend.  She and I have bonded over crafting, color and homeschooling.   Annabelle always, always participates in Stitched in Color mosaic challenges and has been a finalist more than a few times.  She was a little nervous that I asked her to guest post today, but I think after seeing what she did with Color Intensive, you'll see why I had to have her!

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I had a wonderful experience in the Color Intensive class.  Rachel is an excellent color guide.  Her talent for describing and conveying color is incredible.  It was definitely not one of those basic color classes I had in school!












Lesson one especially was thought provoking.  Rachel explained how color affects us each on an emotional level and expresses how we feel.  I love how that one lesson has made me think more about the colors I use in a number of different areas, not just fabrics.

Annabelle's Seasons in blue and purple

The assignment ‘following inspiration’ towards the end of the workshop connects all the pieces - taking an inspired idea, expressing it in color, then fabric and finally into a finished project.  Here are my photos and lives notes from the class...

Following Inspiration [color intensive]
 
I want a journal cover for my homeschool composition notebook. I use this notebook to keep track of what the kids are doing/learning. I could just make one but I thought it might be good to put a little more thought and meaning into it.




Step 1: inspiration

I use the words on the chalkboard as a mental guide for teaching my kids and I believe if I focus on instilling a love/desire for the first three in them, they will by default learn. This seems like a good place to start. But how do I convey these words with color?

Step 2: colors

I was thinking of how I want to feel about our homeschool and how I want my kids to feel about their studies. Happy, joyous, glad! The middle photo expresses that beautifully. No, most of the time my kids do not feel this way about school but a girl has to dream. At least they love books and I've seen them reading just like the girl in the last photo. They (we) also love nature study which is represented by the first photo of wildflowers. Art is always a favorite with all of us and these photos have a artsy feel in their design to me.

step 3: fabrics
Since this will be a small project I thought I'd try to use mostly scraps. It seems like the practical thing to do :)  Anyway, after pulling all the fabrics I do think it looks better to add just little bits of the lemon and peapod.  You may notice a lack of coral. I seem to be in short supply of that lovely color and may pick some up when I go to the city.

 

the finish!

That is what sewing and quilting is all about to me, and having Rachel walk me through it was a huge encouragement. I’ve used the steps from this assignment with other projects, such as the owlie softie I made, with a little more confidence.

Of course, there’s the bonus of having all the patterns and projects (and there are quite a few) for future play.  My favorites were the Kona card manipulative and trimmed tote!  I also enjoyed the mosaic assignments because they gave me instant opportunity to apply what I learned.

Annabelle's Manipulative Kona Card

The class really was an intensive look at color, and I was sad to see it end. Rachel, if you ever decide to do a level two of this class I’ll be one of the first to sign up!

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Thanks, Annabelle!  I really enjoyed teaching the class as well.  If you have any questions for her, feel free to post those in the comments here. For more details about Color Intensive, see this post.   We'll round out our guest posts with a thoughts on Handstitched this Thursday!

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Some favorite Color Intensive projects and progress shots from the Stitched in Color flickr pool:

Palette Exercise, Clock by Laurelle C

Trimmed Tote Project in complementary scheme by Teagan Carnes

Warm vs. Cool Exercise, Green by Rachel of Wooden Spoons

Color + Emotion Exercise, Exuberance by Amy of 13 Spools

Monochromatic Ikat Quilt (pattern with class), Grecian Waters mockup by BGelhausen