Nuanced Neon Voting Now Open

Hi friends!  Stitched in Color is having another color mosaic contest.  The theme this time is #NuancedNeon.  See my first post about it here.  

She just announced the finalists today and I'm happy to report that she picked my Classy Clashy Brights as one of the top 10!  Head over to her page to vote for your favorite (I really hope it's mine!) now through noon on Monday the 25th.  The two winning mosaics will be announced on Monday!

visit Stitched in Color to vote

Fabrics are as follows, left to right, top to bottom: 1. Speckled in Periwinkle, 2. Pressed Leaves,  3. Butterflies in  Red, 4. Gingham in Silver,  5. Leaves in Ultramarine,  6. Chasing Butterflies in Fruit Punch,  7. Word Find in Pink,  8. TinyScript in Red,  9.  Leaves in Plum

Color Mosaic Contest - Nuanced Neon

Stitched in Color is once again having a color mosaic contest, sponsored by Mad About Patchwork.  The theme this time is Nuanced Neon...


Two winners will receive a FQ bundle of their fabric choices!  The contest runs through midnight tonight at which time Rachel will choose her favorites and then open up voting to the rest of us with the final winners announced on May 25th!  So get your entries in and then remember to go back and vote for your favorites!

Rachel guides us to "choose fabrics to express your interpretation of Nuanced Neon.  Your collection of fabrics can be playfully bright neon or more nuanced with neutrals or soft shades.  Just make sure to include a few very bright colors.."  I have been dying to make a neon quilt!  I LOVE neon; its my absolute.favorite.color.ever!  Just ask my husband.  He gets so sick of my overly saturated running shoes, pants, and jewelry.  

Nuanced Neon #1 - Tempered Brights

I wanted to create a more grown-up version of neon with this color palette.  I think that the bright oranges and greens are nicely off set by the soft blue and pink.  They give the whole thing a slightly more sophisticated feeling.  The warm grey neutrals give your eye somewhere to rest and pause.  So that even though your energized, you are still focused and calm.

Fabrics are as follows, left to right, top to bottom: 1. Dots in Sappy Green, 2. Droplet in Carrot, 3. Lilac Meadows in Bermuda, 4. Lulu in Persimmon,  5. Mercury in Chartreuse,  6. Ink in Parchment,  7. Apricot Sunstone,  8.Climbing Vine in Khaki,   9.  Fox Shrine in Green

Nuanced Neon #2 - Clashy Classy Brights

I'm fairly certain I've worn an outfit in these exact colors.  There is something so satisfying about these clashy bright colors all together.  They are pleasing to the eye but there's also something about them that makes you a little bit uncomfortable.  And if I'm not a little bit uncomfortable each day then I know that I need to make a change.  These colors inspire me to be open, excited, happy, strong, and adventurous.

Fabrics are as follows, left to right, top to bottom: 1. Speckled in Periwinkle, 2. Pressed Leaves,  3. Butterflies in  Red, 4. Gingham in Silver,  5. Leaves in Ultramarine,  6. Chasing Butterflies in Fruit Punch,  7. Word Find in Pink,  8. TinyScript in Red,  9.  Leaves in Plum

Play Crafts Palette Builder 2.1

Do you ever see a picture or a photograph and think: "Wow!  Those colors would make a lovely quilt!"?  Me too.  All the time.  Usually I just end up pinning the picture, then maybe printing it or looking at it side by side with the Kona webpage (because I don't have a Kona color card). Definitely not ideal or exact.

Well a few days ago I discovered the Play Craft Palette Builder 2.1,  I'm not sure how I stumbled upon it but, boy oh boy, am I glad that I did.  Play Craft is a great website.  They have patterns, tutorials, and fun projects available for free.  They are also one of the link up sites for the 2014 Pantone Quilt Challenge, inspired by this years color: Radiant Orchid.  Here's what their About page has to say about them:

Play Crafts came about after a late night conversation among friends about the lack of tools available for crafters. But we didn’t want to just make any tools, we wanted ours to be easy and fun to use, because creativity should be fun! Our goal is to provide tools that get out of the way of your creativity and let you chase your inspiration.

The Palette Builder 2.1 is, in my opinion, one of the coolest features of their website.  All you do is upload a picture that you really liked the colors in or found inspiring, and BAM! it does almost all the rest.  For example,  let's say I wanted to make a quilt inspired by a photograph I had seen in online magazine.  Save it to your computer and click the Load button on the palette builder.  The Palette Builder will automatically select colors from the image AND tell you the coordinating Kona solids.

And if you're not happy with the first pass, you can edit any of the colors or add more to choose which colors you want to accent from that photo.  This is the final palette I came up with based on this photograph.  The coordinating Kona solids are (from left to right) Burgundy, Brown, Chinese Red, Melon, Wasabi, Citrus, Curry, and Yarrow.

Here are a few more palettes I cam up with.

Pastel Urchins

Saturated Fall

Bright Beets

And just for fun I did one of the photo that inspired my [Pink - Grey - Yellow] color scheme.  Would have been nice to tell my bee mates that the coordinateing Kona colors I'm looking for are (from left to right) Smoke, Melon, Coral, Espresso, Coal, Primrose, Wasabi, and Shadow.  I'll keep it in mind for next time though! 

I would absolutely encourage you to check out the Palette Builder 2.1 from Play Crafts and have fun playing with it!  Can't wait to see what you make!

Happy Quilting!

A new month of block swaps

I am excited to be starting a new month of quilt block swaps over on Flickr in the Sew Pieceful group.  This is a month by month group that you can drop in and out of as you like.  In February I received the blocks I needed to finish up my [ Red - Orange - Green ] color palette quilt(s) and will be posting pictures of those soon.

For March I'll be working with a new color palette, inspired by this photo:

Pinks, Greys, and Yellows.  Preferably from the warmer tones of the color spectrum.  This is the mosaic I worked up in this palette that I'll be sharing with my bee mates for inspiration.  Apparently pink is experiencing a resurgence in popularity in my life. Pretty much every quilt I'm working on or planning has pink in it.  I guess we'll have to wait and see what my husband thinks about all this pink.  I also started a pinterest page based on this color palette because I couldn't fit all of my inspiration into just nine images.  Can't wait to see how this quilt will come together!

Sew Pieceful February Block Swap

After a few months off I've decided to join back up with the Sew Pieceful Monthly Block Swap that takes place via Flikr.  Signups are taking place now if you want to join up.

It's pretty simple. 

• It's a month to month swap, meaning you can pick and choose whether or not you want to participate each month and there are no long term commitments.  I participated four times last year but took off time this fall and through the holidays
• Generally there are 5 people in a hive, which means you end up making four blocks for someone else and one block for you each month
• Each one of your bee mates will specify a color scheme and background color and you have to do your best to meet their requests
• You choose the block you want to make

For this round I decided to continue with my Red - Orange - Green color palette to try and finish up a quilt I was working on last year.  I've asked for Modern fabrics in various shades of Red and Orange with a hint of sage green on a Grey Background.

I think this is a really striking color palette and can't wait to add the blocks from this round to my previously received blocks.