OK, friends, I'm going to take what feels like a big risk.  I'm going to try a dark, low-contrast color story for my Penny Sampler.  I've never made a quilt in dark colors, so I'm short on confidence.  I hope it works out!

Do you ever feel like that?  So tentative about color?  Usually I feel pretty confident about my color choices, but this time is different.  Maybe I'm pushing myself far outside my comfort zone because I am making this quilt for the second time?  I don't know, but I can sense the edge of the cliff.  It's scary out here!

photograph by Miasole

This is the main image that spoke to me when I sat down recently to pin down a color scheme for my Penny Sampler.  After considering the color schemes from the course and my favorite Penny Sampler quilts that I showcased earlier this month, it seems I'm craving something drastically different.  This felt succulent arrangement by Etsy shop Miasole makes such a statement on an expansive dark gray background.  It's colorful, but so dark.  Quite a departure from all the white-white-white that tends to define my favorite color schemes lately.

Starry Forest, Quilt, Sofa, Succulents

Peeking around Pinterest, I collected other images with a similar vibe.  It was especially heartening to find a gorgeous quilt version.  Hurray, proof that dark and low-contrast can work as a quilt!  But can it work for the Penny Sampler?

There's nothing to do but find out, I suppose.  Color story?  Check.  Now to zero in on some specific colors - - -

Using my manipulative Kona color card (from Color Intensive), I've gathered color swatches spied in the felt succulent image.  Here they are lounging on Kona Charcoal with a small bit of Cosmic Blue from FreeSpirit Designer Solids.

Once I have my colors, I'm ready to pull fabrics.  I spread open a dark gray background and piled on solids and prints that fit.  I find I can include many Anna Maria Horner prints, including Good Folks - my favorite fabric collection of all time.  Using favorite fabrics feels like insurance on a project like this.

After choosing colors and making a large stack of fabric possibilities, the Penny Sampler course instructs students to choose a few key starting fabrics for particular aspects of the quilt.  These starting fabrics provide a skeleton of sorts for the quilt.  I've chosen gray fabrics for many of my borders and that Cosmic Blue for my Penny Candy sashing. 

Next it was time to order fabric!  Of all the inspiration colors, I was short on cool purples and grays.  I've ordered a range of lovely purples, deep blues and lots of Cosmic Blue in FreeSpirit Designer Solids, plus that Skipping Stones dark gray print that could be useful throughout the quilt.  I hope that, combined with my stash fabrics, these give me plenty of ingredients for a dark and dramatic Penny Sampler. 

Fingers Crossed!

p.s.  We haven't started yet!  Now is the perfect time to sign up for the 2017 Penny Sampler.  You'll receive a pdf course book on the first of each month with detailed lessons for learning machine applique, precise traditional piecing and machine paper piecing while making the blocks of the Penny Sampler.  Available as a 6-month or 12-month sampler program.   Register to join us at my Pattern Shop in whichever version of the journey suits you.  Both samplers start sewing in January!