Purdy Bird QAL Prep Week: Color Inspiration!

It's the first day of the Purdy Bird QAL, and I'm thrilled to finally get started quilting with you! This week is prep week, and it's simply about getting started, gathering needed supplies, and fabric selection planning. So, perhaps the best place for us to start out is talking about one of my favorite topics - COLOR! Since choosing fabrics might be an area where some quilters struggle, I thought that it might be useful to have a little inspiration to help you with fabric selection for the QAL.

 

First, let's look at a couple options with the original Basic Grey grunge color as listed in the pattern, but with changes to the background color. When I am making quilts, I often tend towards bold and highly saturated fabrics. What really makes those colors pop, are when they are combined with white.

Recently, I made a second version of my Fly High, Dragonfly quilt, using similar colors. I decided on a soft grey for the background, and it was amazing to me how much it changed the overall feel of the quilt - the colors were reigned in and more subtle. Remember, the further two colors are away from each other, the higher the conrast you will have when you combine them.

A pale aqua background gives the quilt a friendly and cheery feel, while still remaining soft. Compared with navy, the quilt has a more dramatic and moodier feel. Pay attention that you don't "loose" fabrics because there is not enough difference in contrast.

If you would like to stick with the original color palette, remember there are two shops carrying fabric kits for the Purdy Bird QAL:

In the US: Pink Door Fabrics is offering a Basic Grey grunge + background fabric kit.

In Germany: Grit's Life is offering a Basic Grey grunge fabric kit, and offers my Purdy Bird pattern in print.

 

I've already shared a second version of the Purdy Bird quilt in greys, aquas, and chartreuse. This quilt top has a totally different look to the original, and I will reference both of these quilts during the QAL. In the this week's newsletter, I reference the fabrics that I used for this colorway. Again, I played around with different backgrounds to achieve different looks. All of these fabrics are in cool colors, yet are different than the cool colors I used in the original quilt.

Even though I love working with cool and warm color palette, I find that most people usually tend to gravitate towards one in particular. You might like both, one might make your heart beat a little faster than the other. Interestingly enough, even though I find myself working more with cool colors in my quiltig projects, my living room is a pure warm palette... and these Alison Glass batiks are a scrumptous array of warm colors.

As much as I love bold colors and high contrasts, I am quite smitten with a color combination that is soft, subdued, and subtle. Simply by using colors that are a little more decent and controlled, Purdy Bird takes on a whole other look. These muddy colors from Art Gallery fabrics new Terra Kotta line, give a more delicate and romantic feel.

The last color palette is one that has been brewing in my head for a while, and will most likely be the next Purdy Bird quilt that I make. I couldn't very well move on without sharing a color palette using one of my favorite designer's fabrics, now could I?  Playing around with colors on the computer can give me an idea if the general direction that I am going is right, but ultimately, I find that I end up adjusting a lot once I have the actual fabrics in my hands. Should I keep you in suspense which background fabric I will use?

Let's wrap things up now with color, shift gears and address the issue of SIZE... it does matter, you know? Depending on where or how you choose to use your quilt, making a larger quilt might be floating around in your head. So, here are a few ideas for adding to the Purdy Bird quilt:

A simple addition of a few flying geese from the right and left sides could help add length to the quilt.

 

Alternatively, the flying geese could be running from top to bottom on the sides as well.

By repeating the diamond blocks already included in the pattern, an alternating pattern could add extra length to the quilt.

... and if you are really keen on applique, one of my favorite things to do, is adding applique circle accents.

So, are ready to get started? Then link up your Purdy Bird QAL "Prep Week" progress on Instagram and be sure to use the #purdybirdqal hashtag to qualify for the giveaway.

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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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#30daysoffabricstacks challenge

Stitched in Color, is hosting a really fun challenge on Instagram, sharing fabric stacks from your stash based on certain themes for 30 days. (details on her blog) The whole idea behind it is to push and stretch yourself beyond your go-to color palettes. Perhaps you already know this about me, but pulling fabrics for a project is my favorite part of making a quilt (if only I felt that ways about actually quilting quilts, then I'd have it made). There are several color palettes that have been a challenge for me, and several that I would have never explored otherwise...

Day 1 #trueblue. This one is a bit of a challenge since blue is my second to last fabric that I grab for my projects... not to say that I don't use it at all, but it's not a natural for me when there are colors like green around.

Day 2 #ethereal. Despite the fact that I usually tend towards high popping contrasts when it comes to a color palette, there is a real appeal to me to have alluring and subtle contrasts. These soft corals, lilacs, pale aquas, and chartreuse accents give a quiet, yet impactful punch.

Day3 #orange. There was once a time that I literally had at least a touch of orange in every room in my house. I grew up with orange, and if I had it my way, there would still be orange carpet in my parents living room today. (uh oh, I'm dating myself as a 70's child) In any case, I recall that an orange and fuchsia color palette appealed to me even at a young age.

Day 4 #newfabric. As silly as it may sound, most of my fabric shopping consists of stash building rather than buying fabrics for specific projects. I have my go-to colors, and I am confident in my preferences. Even though I am simply adding fabrics to my stash, sometimes it ends up looking like a planned project instead.

Day 5 #baby. I know that it's possible to create gender neutral quilts for babies, but I much prefer more gender specific projects instead. Since I ended up with three boys in the house, (the one I married and the other two that look like me) I never really had a chance to play around with fabrics that I might have chosen had one of them been a girl.

Day 6 #folksyfall. I was actually really excited to "re-visit" this color palette... doesn't it remind you of this project? I'm quite drawn to bold and stark contrasts on a deep chocolate background. It gives another kind of pop than if it were on a light background.

In case you are wondering, there's still time to join the contest... it runs until August 6th, and in any case, it's good practice and fun to re-discover old favorites that might be hidden in your stash.

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