Tag Archives: color inspiration

Color Inspiration, Quilting, Sponsored Post, Tutorials

Geese Crossing Mini Quilt {Sizzix Tutorial} & Color Inspiration Thursday {72}

June 23, 2016 kittywilkin 9 Comments

I recently had some fun playing with a new Sizzix die and a color/value gradient from dark purple to light pink. Today I’m sharing a tutorial over on the Sizzix blog so that you can make your own Geese Crossing mini quilt. Since the colors and the peonies from my garden are serendipitously paired, I created a color inspiration palette to share, too!

This mini quilt finishes at 24″ square, and its creation coincided with the fabulous bloom of peonies in our garden. It features a new die called Geese Crossing, designed by Victoria Findlay Wolfe and released at Quilt Market last month. It’s a very versatile die and allows for lots of design, color, and value play.

-How to get perfect points when sewing geese — Tips for getting perfect points!

In my tutorial, I share information that will be helpful for all quilting projects, including:
– Tips for creating a successful value gradient in a fabric pull;
– How to get perfect points when sewing geese or other triangles; and,
– Tips to prevent bunching when sewing on an angle.

You can read the full tutorial and see more photos of my project process on the Sizzix blog, here.

The colors of the peonies and the colors in the quilt meld so beautifully together! I really could not help but take a million photos of this quilt with the gorgeous color gradient of peonies from my garden, but since it’s Thursday, I figured a combination of Color Inspiration Thursday and a heads-up about my Sizzix tutorial would be perfectly acceptable.

Ahhh peonies! Such an inspiration!

Corresponding solids from left to right:
Kona Dusty Blue, Bella Pewter, Bella Petal Pink, Kona Plum, Kona Cerise, Kona Eggplant

Corresponding Aurifil thread from left to right:
2560 – Iris
2564 – Pale Lilac
2425 – Bright Pink
2479 – Med Orchid
4030 – Plum
2582 – Dk Violet

This color palette was created using Play Crafts’ Palette Builder 2.1 as per usual, and the matching Aurifil threads and Kona & Moda Bella solids are particularly useful! I will certainly be getting a few of those threads for quilting! We actually had dark magenta peonies that would have matched the darkest purple fabric, but they are the early variety that met their end during a thunderstorm a few weeks ago. Still, our garden provided a lovely fade from the palest pink to a bright magenta with the peonies blooming now.

I love the natural ombres and vibrant colors found in nature and thoroughly enjoy combining natural inspiration with quilty projects. It is so fun to try to stitch the beauty around me into the quilts in my hands!

Where in nature do you find the most inspiration? Flowers? Colors in general? Textures? or simply through the endless variety of growth and new life that appears before our eyes daily?

Psst… stop and smell the flowers today!

I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday with this finished flimsy!

Life

Quilty Thankful Thursday

April 30, 2015 kittywilkin 10 Comments

Color Inspiration has been laying dormant for the past few weeks, much like the plants outside and the baby in my belly. Actually, neither the plants outside nor the baby in my belly are truly dormant–they are moving and working and growing like mad, but so far it has all been out of sight. They are both getting ready to burst forth with vigor, though, I can feel it. With mere weeks now until potential baby time, I’ve been spending a lot of time sewing in an attempt to wrap up my pre-baby quilty to-do list, which means a bit less time for blogging. I still love you, I promise.

Last Thursday I had a particularly thank-FULL day and decided to share some of the highlights this week, linking up with Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl’s Quilty Thankful Thursday. Be forewarned: I’m breaking one of my biggest blogging rules in this post and using almost entirely iPhone pictures (gasp. shudder). Gratitude does not discriminate, though, and I’d rather share my thanks than hold back due to a lack of appropriately awesome photos. Please forgive me.

Sewing time

Last week was spring break week, which meant no preschool for Maddie. The kids and I had a *mostly* exciting week full of play dates. To top it off, my mother-in-law was free to play with both kids all day on Thursday. This gave me some much needed, uninterrupted sewing time so that I could finish the Pinkalicious Hazel Hedgehog baby quilt for my sister-in-law. I know once little baby boy makes his appearance, long stretches of sewing time will be impossible for a good long time. I breathed deeply and enjoyed every moment.

Unexpected Fails-Turned-Wins

quilt math error win — Top right and bottom left are a bit too big, but nothing a bit of squaring can’t help!

During my epic sewing day, I discovered that the small fabric shop from whom I’d purchased the background fabric had made an error and sent 1.25 yards instead of 1.5 yards of the necessary fabric (unexpected human error: fail). With my original plan, the 1.25 yards not only would require exorbitant piecing, but would simply not be enough to fill the background (epic conundrum made more epic by the severe time crunch). BUT, since I had made the last minute decision to piece a heart in a speech bubble to add to the quilt top, I was able to finagle all of the dimensions and cutting calculations to make it work. Without the speech bubble, it would not have been possible. AND the errors I made while reconfiguring the quilt layout (shh, I was tired!) resulted in slightly larger than necessary pieces instead of too small (accidental quilt math fail-turned-win). Awesome. What could have been a total bust of a soon-to-be-extinct sewing day resulted in a completely pieced, layered, basted, and partially quilted baby quilt. Blissfully grateful!

Surprise Gifts

In the midst of this wild sewing day, I received a package. It was addressed to me and from a machine embroidery shop, but I could not for the life of me remember what I had ordered. Surprise!! It was a completely amazing and unexpected gift of 20 bobbins from Yvonne. It immediately took my bobbin count from one to 21, which is unfathomably amazing.

I now can quilt with MANY colors, and have a bobbin to match! AND I can load multiple bobbins before quilting to smooth out the process. Life changing. I’m continuously amazed by and grateful for the generosity and kindness that runs so deeply in our quilting community. Yvonne, through picking up on a little single-bobbin-juggling aside during an email exchange, decided to invite my husband into a mission of espionage to send me a gift. Yvonne, you are SO kind and I am grateful for our friendship.

Power of Community

One last bit of gratitude, from just yesterday. As another example of how powerfully positive the quilting community can be, Jodi from Tales of Cloth posted about the completion of the #flowersforeleni quilt tops made for Rachel from Stitched in Color. 550 flowers, made by 240 women from 4 continents, all in loving support of a fellow quilter whose baby girl was born with unexpected complications and an unknown future. I recommend you read Jodi’s full post HERE, but I am so grateful that I was able to be a part of this effort. I made two of those 550 flowers, filled with hope, and prayers, and support. There’s power here in this quilting community, and from what I’m seeing, we are using it for immense good. It makes my heart swell.

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes, a little reminder about the importance and value of gratitude:

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance,
chaos to order,
confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” – Melody Beattie

Go ahead. Unlock the fullness of life. It takes practice, but it is possible. Thank you, Yvonne, for getting us quilters into the habit of being grateful. I’m linking up with Thankful Thursday, although I will try to be thankful every day.

Design, Life

Color Inspiration Thursday {40}

March 12, 2015 kittywilkin 2 Comments

It seems the QuiltCon blog posts are starting to slow to a trickle, but the influence of the experience lingers on. Before heading to QuiltCon, I had visions of finding and photographing dozens of fabulously talented quilters in front of their quilts for future people palettes. I didn’t take dozens. In fact, I only took one. But it’s a fabulous one, and of a woman I’m so fortunate to have met. Today’s star is Krista Hennebury, quilter, retreat organizer, and author of her new book Make It, Take It for Martingale, which is meant to feel like a retreat in a book–sewing fun things with friends. I was fortunate enough to meet Krista through our serendipitous pairing in the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap, Round 3 earlier this year. I was tasked with creating a quilt for Krista, and fortunately she has great taste! I had a blast, made this quilt for her, and gained a friend in the process.

Corresponding solids from left to right:
Kona Black, Bella Brick Red, Bella Longhorn, Kona Cedar, Bella Etchings Charcoal, Bella Gray

Corresponding Aurifil thread from left to right:
2692 – Black
2355 – Rust
2350 – Copper
2235 – Orange
5013 – Asphalt
5011 – Rope Beige

This palette features Krista in front of her gorgeous quilt Chess on the Steps, which hung at QuiltCon. I’m intrigued by this quilt, which she calls “improv under the influence”, since it’s a quilt with a very improv feel, but created using traditional chain piecing methods. Those who know me know that I struggle with improv, but I feel like this quilt may be the place to begin! Fortunately, it was the pattern of the month in September 2014 and is available for free for members of the Modern Quilt Guild.

I asked Krista to answer three short questions to help the world get to know the color inspiration star of the week a little more intimately:

Where do you fit into the worldwide family tree of quilting?
I describe my quilting as traditionally-informed modern quilting if someone really needs a description, but really, I just like making quilts. I’ve been blogging over 5 years, teaching for 13, running a day-retreat business for 11. I love my local traditional and modern guilds, where I’m an active member of both.

What is your first memory of being really excited?
The Haunted House at Disneyworld, age 9.

If you could choose anyone, who would you choose as your mentor?
Gwen Marston

Krista actually wrote a really great blog post just the other day about a weekend spent sewing with Gwen Marston, so if you want to hear more about the amazing woman Krista wishes could be her third grandma, read the post here.

You can find Krista in the bloggy quiltiverse here:

Blog
Instagram
Facebook
Flickr
Twitter
or go on a virtual quilt retreat with her by buying her book:*Disclosure: Amazon affiliate link above, which means if you buy the book by clicking through, I receive 4% of the sale.

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

All color palettes are created using Play Crafts’ Palette Builder 2.1 and my photo, taken at QuiltCon 2015.

Design, Life

Color Inspiration Thursday {3}

May 29, 2014 kittywilkin 2 Comments

Today I thought I’d mix up our color inspiration a bit and use photographs from someone other than myself. Were you getting tired of nature and flower photos? I hope not, but either way, this week will act as a little break. I was going through my photo files looking for some good brights (who doesn’t love brights?), and I found a couple of gems taken by my dear friend Brittany from Brittany White Photography. Both photographs are of my daughter, and I love reminiscing to the days when she was such a wee itty bitty girl. And oh, the color!

Corresponding Kona cottons from left to right:
Coal, Mushroom, Deep Rose, Crimson, Raisin, Cardinal

This photograph was taken years ago, when Brittany was first starting out her photography business and went by the name of Lucy James Photography. My daughter is exactly one year old in the photo, yet I gasped when I saw it since it evokes feelings of maturity that I had not yet associated with my baby girl. The colors pulled from this photo are both soft and elegant, and I could see them in a comfortable lap quilt draped across a living room couch, or even as a king quilt in a master bedroom suite.

Corresponding Kona cottons from left to right:
Pool, Breakers, Silver, Denim, Candy Pink, Crimson

And so quickly, she grows. A year and a half later, my daughter was captured wearing my favorite colors, seriously. This is exactly the palette I was seeking when I set out to find this week’s color inspiration, and I’m grateful to Brittany for eagerly agreeing to my use of her photographs in my palettes. Anyone who has been following my latest sewing projects knows that I’m absolutely STUCK on these colors. Turquoise, magenta, a bit of silver (low volume): I’m a happy quilter!

I just love Brittany’s photography; she captures such depth of soul and beauty in all of her subjects. Check out her website or her blog for some more portraiture eye candy, as well as for bits of inspiration and tips (while not specific to quilting, this 6 tips to better photos post is quite helpful!).

While we are on the topic of inspiration, last week I read a blog post that I think any creative person can relate to. Cheryl Arkison of Naptime Quilter wrote an honest and open post about being in a creative slump. This is from the author of popular quilting books Sunday Morning Quilts, and A Month of Sundays, with another manuscript underway! Yes, even the famous quilters get into a slump. Even the big names grow in bitterness and frustration at a continuously cluttered house. I’m not alone in this. There was something releasing in reading her blog post. It helped me to realize that we all feel the daily frustrations and at times get into slumps where creativity just won’t happen, AND that there are steps that can be taken to help emerge on the other side. I asked Cheryl if I could share her list of suggestions for getting through a slump, and she said yes:

– Keep sewing. Keep your muscles moving, your brain activated to the process.

– Finish something, anything.

– Take inventory of the WIPs, admit that you won’t finish some and pass them on.

– Wash the windows, or get them washed. New light, clean light will highlight the path and let the butterflies in.

– Try a new technique.

– Give away a quilt, a finished quilt.

– Say no to a commitment.

– Get up early to sip tea and do nothing in the quiet morning light.

– Colour, paint, or create with your kids.

– Turn off the computer, walk away from Pinterest and Instagram

– Put away the inspirational stack of fabric you pulled out two years ago.

– Sign up for a swap or bee.

– Take a road trip, even if just for the day.

– Have faith in yourself.

I love this list. So many resonate with me, and I think that final tip is so key. Have faith in yourself. For me, sewing and creating in general is an outlet of creative energy and my attempt to make beautiful things daily. If sewing begins to make ugly things, even in my mind, then perhaps it is time to go paint with the kids, put the fabric aside, and open the window so that the butterflies can come in.

I would add “Lay in the grass and look closely at nature” to this list, since getting a close look at the bees busily buzzing from flower to flower renews my awe at the world. And for me, where there’s awe, inspiration flows.

What suggestions do you have for getting out of a slump? Perhaps search for color inspiration everywhere you go? *wink wink*