Link-Up #summerstackfridays Cool Colors

    
Are you living in a corner of the world where you are ready for the summer heat to cool down? There has been quite a heat wave in Germany this summer, and thoughts of ice cream, swimming pools, and cool breezes are occupying most people's minds these days.

Last week's summer stack, we warmed it up, but this week it's time to turn that color wheel to the other side and explore the cooler side of things with shades of green, blues, and purples. I like to challenge myself to try to take a color scheme and approach it differently than my usual high saturation / high contrast palette. When I think of cool colors, I think in the pure hues... essentially the colors at the top of the color wheel. Toning things down with softer, pastel colors that is still within the cool color range, is a fun alternative.

Again, this stack originally started out with an inspiration fabric from Anna Maria Horner... is it a little obvious by now that I am a big fan? This print is full of directional color cues that are quite easy to follow. I actually went with a fuller range, but this fabric could easily concentrate on just the blues or just the greens, without the additional fuchsia accents.

So, which color scheme do you find yourself leaning torwards... cool or warm? I suppose I have color moods, that can change from day to day. What are you stacking this week? Join in on the fun and link up with me!

Be sure mention that you are linking up with Campbell Soup Diary for the #summerstacks Link-Up party. Anyone can link up their fabric stack, even if you are coming late to the party, and I will keep the link open for a week. You can also link up from Instagram. The link-up runs from July 5th - August 30th.

Please take the time to visit/comment/like the posts from others who are linking up and be sure to look through the comments. If you happen to be struggling with your fabric stack, then just say so in the comments, so the rest of us can stop by and maybe help you out... sometimes a fresh eye can see something that might have been missed.  

If you are following the weekly themes, next week I'll be sharing a complimentary color scheme next week - red/green, blue/orange, or yellow/purple... which one do you think I'll pick?

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Waste-Not, Want-Not Pillow

One of the things that I think could possibly trip people up when it comes to a reverse applique project, is that you have to essentially cut a hole right in the middle of your project... did you ever have your mom reprimand you sternly for doing the same with your construction paper art projects?

Well, I say, that if you already had those natural tendencies when you were young, then perhaps you were onto something back then, so shake off any guilty feelings and charge boldly forward... no holding back!

Just because reverse applique requires you to cut a hole out of the middle of your project doesn't mean that you have to waste it... not with my Waste-Not, Want-Not pillow! Last week I shared my Circle Around pillow, which is a reverse applique pillow, and with all those pretty cut-outs, you didn't think that I could throw them away?

So, I simply made a freezer paper circle template that was slightly smaller than my cut-out, a little starch, a little ironing, and viola... pretty finished circles to applique on a quilted background. This time I did the quilting before I finished the applique, even though I usually quilt after my shapes are appliqued on.The circles are finished with a blind stitch, using an invisible thread from Aurifil.

Ahh... things are really warming up for summer aren't they? Have you relaxing and putting your feet up too?

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Link-Up #summerstacksundays Warm Colors

So how has the weather been with you this summer... are you ready to warm things up a bit? We are now into week three of the #summerstacksundays link-up party, and what better way to celebrate summer than with a warm color palette.

 

Working with really bright and intense tones, is perhaps what makes my heart beat when it comes to working with color. In spite of this, I can sometimes have a very specific color palette in my mind when approaching a new project. I love the challenge of toning things down, pulling in the reigns, and grabbing for an outside of my color norm, go-to stack.

Just because you go for a warm or analogous color palette, doesn't mean that you have to go for colors in thier hightest intensity.The nice thing about an analogous color palette is that it is fairly easy because you are just picking the colors beside each other the color wheel. Here I have played with much lighter tints on the color wheel, by keeping the colors farily subtle.

Just a little something to think about: one common mistake that I see too often when pulling fabrics is that there is more attention paid to making sure that the colors are a perfect match, but less attention paid to that the style of the fabric should match as well. With this stack of fabrics, the motif's are a little more playful... I avoided damask, flowers, and overly ornate designs.

So, what are you stacking this week? If you are following the weekly themes, then how about if we cool things down next week, with a "cool colors" fabric stack - think greens, blues, and purples.

Be sure mention that you are linking up with Campbell Soup Diary for the #summerstacks Link-Up party. Anyone can link up their fabric stack, even if you are coming late to the party, and I will keep the link open for a week. You can also link up from Instagram. The link-up runs from July 5th - August 30th.

Please take the time to visit/comment/like the posts from others who are linking up and be sure to look through the comments. If you happen to be struggling with your fabric stack, then just say so in the comments, so the rest of us can stop by and maybe help you out... sometimes a fresh eye can see something that might have been missed.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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#summerstack Moves to Sunday!

Sometimes you find yourself mid-stream when you realize that you might need to change course a bit…and just hope that you’ve not gotten too far to turn back. I’ve come to the conclusion that Fridays may not be the easiest day for a link up party, which is why I decided to change the summer stack link-up party to Sundays. 

The goal is still the same: practicing, pushing yourself, documenting for future projects, and getting connected to other quilters. It’s still low key, but hopefully now on a slower day for everyone – summer vacation or not.  

If you are following the weekly themes, then how about if we warm things up next week, with a "warm colors" fabric stack - think reds, oranges, and yellows... we are headed into summer, you know? Look forward to seeing you there!

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Link-Up #summerstackfridays Primary

One of the benefits of documenting fabric pulls is that it gives you a starting point, once you are actually ready to dive into a new project. If you are like me, you might have several projects going at one time, but may have to wait until the other projects are finished before starting new ones... having time to think about favorite fabric stacks may not always match the beginning of a new project.

So for this weeks' #summerstackfridays, I started out with this "Ladder" print from the Sweet Dreams collection, from Anna Maria Horner as my inspiration fabric.The darker dots are actually an interesting dark, greenish-khaki color that is a little hard to match up. Since I don't have very much of this color in my stash, I ended up letting it read a little more gold than green.

When you match up this color to a color card/wheel, you notice that this IS the same color... just a few steps above it. By staying in the same color family, I am able to work in a color that appears to not even be in the inspiration fabric... all I did was lighten it.

Since the gold fabrics that I chose also have some pink/coral accents, it connects to the inspiration fabric. Some of the lighter and darker shades of teal are fairly obvious picks, but if I am being perfectly honest, I have to admit that I struggle a little bit with this fabric pull... not the fabric selection part, but the end result. I'm not the biggest "primary color combo" fan. If you break this stack down, it is "blue, yellow, and red"... obviously not in it's pure and bright shades, but primary nonetheless. Visit my previous post for a few more ideas how to put a twist on your primary color palette.

Currently I have a project in the works, where I used a several of these fabrics. Since it is not a high priority, deadline project, it will be on the back burner for a bit. Now that I have it cataloged, I can pull this fabric stack back up when I'm ready to pick it up again and see where I left off. Keeping a fabric stash pull in the same photo folder is really helpful once a project is being pulled to the front burner again.

So, what are you stacking this week? Do you have any color combinations that you struggle with too? If you are following the weekly themes, then how about if we warm things up next week, with a "warm colors" fabric stack - think reds, oranges, and yellows... we are headed into summer, you know?

Be sure mention that you are linking up with Campbell Soup Diary for the #summerstacks Link-Up party. Anyone can link up their fabric stack, even if you are coming late to the party, and I will keep the link open for a week. You can also link up from Instagram. The link-up runs from July 5th - August 30th.

Please take the time to visit/comment/like the posts from others who are linking up and be sure to look through the comments. If you happen to be struggling with your fabric stack, then just say so in the comments, so the rest of us can stop by and maybe help you out... sometimes a fresh eye can see something that might have been missed.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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Primary Colors - Adventure or Challenge?

If you talk about a primary color combination, the first thing that might come to mind is the inside of a kindergarten... pure hues of red, yellow, and blue have a tendency to be pretty intense, and especially daring as a fabric combination. For this week's #summerstackfridays link-up, for those following along with the weekly theme, a primary color palette just might be as challenging as one can get... but why no put a little twist on it?

Let's just start out with red... what happens when you add white? You end up with pink. And depending on how much white you add to it, depends on how light or dark a pink it is. Even a pink would still "technically" be in the red family. My red has a slight orange touch, and has been lightened, which means that am now working with tints of red. (a tint is a color + white) I've toned the intensity down, which will give less contrast when I combine it with the other colors.  Even though the bottom fabric has more of a pinkish-lilac background, the coral-red flowers connect to the other "red" fabrics that I've pulled.

For my yellows, again, I've not selected the purist hue of yellow, but have picked a warmer hue. This yellow is headed towards orange, but is still arguably in the yellow family. Because these yellows have added grey to them, they start to get a little muddy. When working with such muddy hues, they don't "bite" as much as when you are combining only pure hues.

Since there are limited names for colors, we often have a tendency to use a general color name, rather than specific color name. Obviously when you mix blue and yellow, then you end up with green. In this case, even though there is a lot of green in my blue, I don't feel like I can call it green just yet. For my primary color palette, I am really using secondary and tertiary colors. Those are just essentially the more specific colors in between the secondary colors. My red moves towards orange, and so does my yellow, and my blue moves towards green - a primary color palette with a twist!

So, when mixing your primary color fabrics for the link-up tomorrow, think about how you can put a little twist on your colors... do you want to lighten them? darken them? use muddy hues?  I hope that this second glance makes working with a primary color palette more of an adventure and less of a challenge. I''ll be sharing the full fabric stack tomorrow for the #summerstackfridays link-up... it's not too late to join in!

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Circle Around Reverse Applique Pillow

Recently I shared one of my favorite, lesser-known, and all-too-often-forgotten-about quilting techniques. If you were to ask me, I would tell you without a doubt, that reverse applique should get more recognition than it does. Don't stop reading there, or snub your nose, just because it has the word "applique" in it... I promise, it's not a dirty word like some might like to label it with quick judgments.

But I've actually noticed something a lot recently - I don't have enough fingers and toes to count how many times I have seen a quilt, and thought to myself - "wow, one could have cut corners, shaved off hours of drunkard's path, curved-piecing sewing, and still ended up at the finish line in half the time... just by using reverse applique instead!" Just stop and ponder it for a bit.

As part of my color theory class at Nadelwelt, I ended up making several quilt blocks to use as samples. I was inspired by a simple Baumhaus-influenced art print that I found, and decided that it would be perfect as an applique block. What starts out as one block, grows to two, well, and you know the rest...

I thought that straight line quilting was quite fitting to the simple geometric shapes. I finished the back with a really nice linen in fuchsia that I had picked up several years ago at a bargain price. I love mixing linens in my quilting projects.

So, have you done any reverse applique projects? What has been your experience? ... do you love it or are you scared of it because it's "applique"? Then let me challenge you... see if you can spot a couple projects that reverse applique would be a faster substitution than pieced curves... you might actually end up thanking me later!

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Link-Up Week 1 #summerstackfridays

Welcome to week one of the #summerstackfridays... I'm so glad you've joined in! As I mentioned in my introduction post, summer stack Fridays is all about carving out a little bit of time in the busy summer months to sneak in few creative, quilty mintues, even if it is just 10 - 15 mintues. Let's just face it - summer sewing doesn't have anything on the cold, winter months, but a link-up party gives you a chance to make it into your sewing room, even if you don't have the time to sew anything. ... and let's face it - what quilter doesn't love petting all her pretty fabrics, am I right?

Just in case you happened to miss my first fabric stack, be sure to backtrack where I shared a little of my process of how I select fabrics. For the link-up, you don't have to follow my method, but perhaps it helps you take a different approach when you select your fabrics. Remember, there is no wrong or right. Picking fabrics is purely personal, and what appeals to me, might not appeal to you. 

So, as a fun little experiment for this week's fabric pull, I wanted to start with the same "inspiration fabric" that I used last week. With my first stack, I used a lot of cool colors, but with this fabric stack, I wanted to warm it up - we are going into summer, you know! I added the middle brown fabric to connect some of the warmer colors into this stack. The second fuchsia fabric brings in a little element of orange, which connects to the warmer tones, while connecting to the inpiration fabric too.

And now it's your turn... just link up either from your blog or from Instagram, and be sure to use the #summerstackfridays hastag. Please visit some of the other fabric stack posts, because it's all about connecting. If you are struggling with your fabric selection, and would like for me (or others) to give you my (our) two cents - just say so in the comments! Happy stacking!

Just in case you would like to have a weekly theme, next week I will be sharing a "primary" fabric stack. Primary colors can be pretty insense, so if you struggle with working with such vibrant colors, it might be helpful to thinkin about playing with the values and clarity of the colors... make sure you look back at my "Art of the Fabric Pull" for working with values. For some fantasic primary color ispiration, be sure to stop by Rachel's blog.

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Put Your Feet Up - Brimfield Stool

I recently had a visit from a quilty friend for the weekend, and it seemed as if I was all over the place with my projects... somehow, I wasn't really motivated to work on the things that I was "supposed" to work on... and I actually pulled out a project that had been a long time in the works... for a long time.

When I first started this Brimfield block, I didn't have a specific plan, but had thought to possibly make a little pillow for my living room. Since I already have several quilted pillows, I quickly concluded that it was perhaps a little predictable... and even overdone. By the time I had decided to turn this single block into a stool, the next step was to actually find a stool.  

Anyone who is keen on vintage shopping or furniture refurbishing knows that you might have a general idea of what you are looking for, but may not find it on the first couple excursions. Sometimes you find the most when you are not looking for something specific.

Last year on the way home from Nadelwelt, I made a spontaneous stop at a little antique place that was on the side of the road. I was excited to find some comic books for my boys, a few vintage cigar items for my husband, and yes, you guessed... a stool for me!

But as you can imagine, my block had been basted, half quilted, and put on the back burner by then. It's not always easy to pick up a project that has been packed away for so long, dust it off, and jump back in.

Because I had to custom fit the block to the stool, you can probably imagine how nerve wracking it was to cut this block into a circle... if the measurements slightly off, then I would have to scrap the whole thing - only one-chance-cutting here. Sewing the inset circle was nothing new to me, because I did it often from my purse-making days... and give me a staple gun, and I am a happy girl.

... and just like that, to my surprise, I was stapling away for a weekend finish!?! I was super please how well the upholstery fit. So the only thing left for me to do now, is kick back and really put my feet up.

Pattern: Brimfield Block, from Brimfield Awaking
Fabrics: Anna Maria Horner, Alison Glass, Heather Baily
Background: Essex Linen

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