The blues found in nature are among my all-time favorite colors. Forget-me-nots, delphiniums, hyacinths, the sky, the ocean… all the most gorgeously varied shades of blue! Today’s color palettes are created from some photographs of grape hyacinths found at a local park–Belfast City Park.

Color palettes are created with Play Crafts’ Palette Builder 2.1 and my photographs. An awesome feature of the palette builder is that it matches fabric solids and Aurifil thread, too. This week I discovered that we could use more variety in our fiber blue-voilets–the matches are not entirely accurate–or maybe mother nature wins the hand when it comes to color. That doesn’t mean we can’t soak in the gorgeous colors and feel inspired!

Corresponding solids from left to right:
Kona Deep Blue, Bella Terrain Iris, Kona Hyacinth, Kona Dahlia, Bella Clover, Bella Stone

Corresponding Aurifil thread from left to right:
2735 – Med Blue
1248 – Grey Blue
2520 – Violet
2520 – Violet
2908 – Spearmint
2605 – Grey

This palette captures the lighter blues and purples, while the next one focuses on the darks. Seeing this sea of hyacinths, I had to take a little detour to photograph them. Now THIS is spring!

Corresponding solids from left to right:
Bella Night Sky, Kona Bright Periwinkle, Kona Laurel, Kona Coal, Kona Lavender, Kona Hyacinth

Corresponding Aurifil thread from left to right:
1248 – Grey Blue
2775 – Steel Blue
4173 – Dk Olive
1158 – Med Grey
2520 – Violet
1128 – Lt Blue Violet

Perfect little grape bells dance around a hundred stalks. This palette reads more purply, catching the darker and denser flowers. As I mentioned above, the solids and thread color matches are not as accurate as they usually are.

As you can see, the actual fabric matches read a lot more on the side of either straight blue or straight purple. The flowers are a lovely blend of blue-violet in a variety of shades. Isn’t the aesthetic variety in nature amazing!?!