Emotion: Quilter's Color Quest
Hello, fellow quilters! April is the second month in our six-month series, exploring color as we work through my book The Quilter’s Field Guide to Color: A Hands-on Workbook for Mastering Fabric Selection.
It’s free to follow along and you can join in any time. Stop by the Quilter’s Color Quest intro page for an overview of our purpose and schedule.
To join, get a copy of my book, subscribe to this blog and follow #quiltersfieldguidetocolor and #quilterscolorquest on Instagram.
This month we’ll finish Part 1, Understanding Color with the chapter on Emotion. That’s what I’m going to talk about today. Later this month we’ll also take in the first two chapters of Part 2, Color Theory.
Onward, my friends!
I don’t think it’s too much to say that the Emotion chapter is one of my favorite in the book. When you learn to channel your emotions into choosing fabrics, your work will be alive and therapeutic. You’ll find the Emotion chapter starting on page 30 of The Quilter’s Field Guide to Color. As you read through, take time to digest the sewn examples. Also, consider some of your favorite creations where the colors seem really on target. Can you see a connection between the emotions of the colors and the design of the project itself?
For example, Sashiko is a slow, meditative project. How nice it feels to work the stitches in cool colors. The peaceful project marries well with calm, soothing shades.
I know this might feel vague and super subjective. That’s emotions for you! They are tricky, but powerful.
Here’s another example:
At the turn of the new year, I was filled with optimism, gratitude and excitement for the future. I was busy packing for our short getaway when the idea of creating a confetti-style quilt struck me. Now, confetti = happy, party, exciting, right? Confetti as a concept aligned with the emotions I was feeling. What colors match those feelings?
I stopped packing and began imagining what fabrics I could use, arranging scraps on my cutting mat to visualize the effect. A happy-optimistic-grateful-excited quilt should be colorful, yes? It was obvious to incorporate all the colors in my Confetti quilt, including multi-colored scraps, with a focus on fabrics that are bright and cheery. That’s using emotion to guide color choice.
Take the Challenge
You’ll find the exercises for this chapter on pages 34-35. When I was writing the book, December 2017, I made a Flower Pod style bear paw block based on the emotion Patchwork Challenge. My exercise was cut from the book during editing, but I’ll share it here:
Today I am feeling optimistic about an exciting new business venture. I am also feeling optimistic because it is early in the day, and I have the opportunity to focus on my ideas.
I chose Coral (38), Cornmeal (26) and Meringue (21) since they all feel happy, fresh and hopeful. The warm Coral, especially, feels strongly optimistic. I added Malachite (105) to ground the colors with a mature energy. Malachite has the peace of blue, but with a nuanced beauty that reflects the measured optimism appropriate to an important business decision.
When I sewed my block, I decided to surround the warm colors with Malachite as a background fabric. That gives Malachite a strong presence while putting the focus on the upbeat colors. I was happy to find the tiger print, even though it leans more toward orange than I was original thinking. The charming cats capture the sense of joy and energy that are woven into my optimism.
Can you guess what the exciting new business venture was? Longarm quilting service!
This weekend, do one or both challenges for Emotion. Share a photo of your results on Instagram with #QuiltersColorQuest and #QuiltersFieldGuidetoColor. Each month I’ll be drawing one random winner from those who use the Color Quest hashtag. Each photo is a chance to win fabric!
March’s winner is @IamKateyZ. She wins both the warm and cool bundles I curated at Fenceline Fabrics. I’ll be in touch about delivery of your prize!
Thanks to Fenceline Fabrics for providing the prize for March. April’s prize will also be a specially curated bundle to accompany one of the color themes we’re exploring this month. I’ll pop in later on to reveal that bundle as we continue on Quilter’s Color Quest.
