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Dreaming in Color - Working with Neutral Like Colors

When our final shipment of the 100 Century Solids arrived this week, the first thing that crossed my mind is how neutrals and dull colors are so important in our world as makers. Neutrals have the job of holding up brighter more intense hues and adding a place for the eyes to rest in a composition. A winter walk provided me with more insight when considering how to use neutrals in my quilts. 

I was so surprised to see the bright green and red/oranges willows among the dead branches. The grey and brown tones in the dead branches act as a backdrop for the new growth that jumps out at us. I could not get this image out of my mind, so got busy creating “Signs of Spring”.

Take a close look at the collage’ style piecing that I put together to represent the feeling behind the colored willows. I had never tried this technique before of creating the collage background, then cutting through it and inserting the willows. The angles and mixture of textures seem to work, and the neutral like tones did capture the mood in the photograph.

My mind began wandering to a color sample I had created on a small piece of canvas in similar colors. On it I used a glue stick to attach swatches of fabric to a small scrap of canvas. It then occurred to me that it would be fun to outline stitch around the swatches free motion style. Below are the results of that simple exercise. You will see an enlarged version of that simple exercise as well. I used the ruler-less cutting techniques from my book, Intuitive Color and Design 2^nd edition, as the construction technique and added the outline stitching and free motion style quilting.

Take a look at how the neutrals are used in this piece. The warm cream color background takes center stage with a couple bits of cool white to add interest, along with several black and white neutrals. In order for the piece to be interesting I chose mostly patterned black and white prints. They end up creating the backdrop for the greens and tiny bit of orange. Although the black and white pieces were made before I saw the willows on my earlier walk they have a similar feeling.

My mind was still wandering back to the willows and I wanted to try out a non-traditional color interpretation of Signs of Spring. I used deep indigo blues as the backdrop for the willows and replaced the orange/red willows with magenta ones. Because the indigo blues are the darkest values, they act like as a dull neutral in this composition.

Sometimes, I feel like an explorer when I get excited about trying out some of the things that run around in my head. As a maker, I find if I try out these whims in small projects I can quickly tell if they are going to work or not. If they don’t feel right, I just move on, but I have not wasted a large amount of time and materials.

In my continued exploration of neutral like colors, I started going through images that depicted neutrals in different situations. Some have a warm feeling and some more of a cool feeling. Neutrals can be described just like pure hues. The examples below showcase different neutral palettes.

Last August, I was inspired to begin the quilt you see below titled “It is not Black and White.” All of the squares with stone shapes were sitting on my cutting table waiting to be included in a quilt. It dawned on me one day that I could collage them with other fabrics on a neutral background. In the close up version you see a large variety of neutrals. The grey in the stone has a blue cast. Some of the creams head in the warm direction, toward a warmer yellow, and others toward black that become cool greys. Variety is the spice of life even in a limited palette of colors.

The title of this quilt came from the unsettled feeling I had during late 2020 and early 2021. I added lots of decorative hand stitching as well as hand quilting and the whole time I was hoping that in the division we were feeling in America would evolve to a sense of peace. That is my hope for 2021.

Also during this time frame, I got the idea to remake a quilt I created over ten years ago in red and blue green with gold accent. My mini group choose the theme “Unhinged” for their 2021 group challenge. This is my version. Without the brass colored inserts this piece would not be as bold as it is. I used a variety of blacks, whites, and brass colored fabrics. If you look closely, you can see these slight differences.

Inspiration photographs not only give us color clues, but also patterning ideas. You can see how the worm wood patterns influence the embroidery below.

As I work through the design process I constantly think about color vocabulary. I find that these words are so helpful in determining which color will work best. Here they are again for you to think about.

Value – Light to Dark

Intensity – Bright to Dull

Temperature – Warm to Cool

Opposites – Complementary colors

If you are making a quilt that is mostly one color, when you add a bit of the opposite color on the color wheel it will make the quilt sing! When it comes to natural inspiration for color, Mother Nature does it beautifully! Clues surround you.

The colors in our pencil packs this month showcase duller colors and neutrals, with a bit of bright color. You never know when you are going to need a duller color or a neutral to make your project sing.

Woodland – browns with curry

Creekside – blues, green, white

Spicy – reds and oranges

 

Dreaming in Color - Texture and Color Entwined with Jean Wells

The arrival of the Entwine line of fabric, by Guicy Guice from Andover Fabrics, gave me the idea to explore textural fabrics in terms of color. These yummy textiles offer an opportunity to add a dimensional quality to quilts that are mostly solid in nature. The first thing I want you to notice is how dimensional the wovens are, and how solid fabrics appear flat. That quality can add interest to a composition. It is another tool for you to use in your journey as a quilter.

You can see the variety in the woven designs, and the color range that Guicy Guice choose. Red and magenta are the dominant colors in the collection, but it ranges from a few neutrals to many other colors.

Note: I found that some of the wovens are a looser weave than others. With these looser fabrics I used a woven fusible interfacing, SF101 Shape Flex from Pellon, to stabilize the fabric before I cut into it.

In the photo above I have an example of a solid in the top corner and then several wovens surrounding it. Take note of how dark the woven check comes across with the addition of the blue color next to the magenta. You can easily see how the role of the second color darkens the magenta.

Whenever I start working up a new color palette the vocabulary words I use to describe color come into play. These descriptive words help me to evaluate along the way when I am pulling fabrics for a new project to make sure I have variety that adds interest to the project..

My Color Vocabulary

Value: Light – Dark  

Intensity: Dull – Bright  

Temperature: Warm – Cool

Opposites: across from each other on the color wheel

Most of you are familiar with Josef Albers, an expert on color who died in 1976. He was famous for his study of the interactions of colors and was a leading pioneer of 20^th century modernism. He often paid homage to the square. I created some of my own samples inspired by his square series. The larger square always represents the color that you see the most of, and the smaller square the lesser amount of color. Sometimes, a third smaller square is included as the accent color.

You can easily see how the roll changes for the grey in each of the samples above.

In this example of four squares, I paired together several different fabrics. At this point, each of the prints is used in equal amount so I would need to decide who will be the leader in the group.

You can see in the photo above that magenta has taken the lead roll, the strong yellow second, and the blue more of an accent.

Contrast can be deceptive when working with color. In the photo below, the two fabric sets on the left are strong saturated colors, but when you look at them from a distance, they start to run into each other and both colors in the block almost appear the same. You can still use both of them in a quilt, but might think about putting some distance between them. In the second set of more medium tone fabrics there is more contrast between the two colors. All of these with the addition of some neutrals could be very interesting.

Look at the top left block above, squint and you almost lose the cheddar square. The magenta seems very saturated, but in the block on the right it is less saturated looking. At the bottom the very dull looking deep red block handles the cheddar square just fine. I like to play around with squares of fabric before I settle on a palette for a new project. It gives me the opportunity to “audition” a fabric that might get to join the group.

This yellow above is so light and pure looking because it is woven with white. Normally we think of yellow as a bright, warm color, but it certainly takes on a different roll with this deep navy fabric and becomes cool in appearance. The light and dark values are evident in both examples.

With both of the yellow and blue examples above you can see a temperature change. In the left yellow fabric the secondary color in the weave is an olive green, and on the blue sample the second color is a turquoise. The color combinations in this collection are very interesting to study, as you can see, and are giving me all kinds of clues to use when choosing colors for a new project.

Next, is a sample where I tried out the wovens and the solids together. It has all kinds of personality with its variety of textures. The solid pieces appear flat, but feature some texture in the window frame, which will add its own kind of dimension. I haven’t had time yet, but want to do some hand stitching, kind of mending style, with this piece in a Japanese Rice Bag and see what I can come up with.

For the shop, we ordered a set of Century Solids from Andover that coordinate with all of the textured wovens. Each month, for the next three months, we will receive 25 new solid colors from the collection. It is going to be so fun to play the with color combinations. Below are two examples of the wovens and the solids.

We are also making new pencil packs from the collection so you can try creating your own color combinations. I choose three new pencil pack combinations from this delivery. Enjoy!

Festive Pencil Pack

Passion Pencil Pack

Sunshine Pencil Pack

Dreaming in Color - Looking

Looking Up - Looking Down - Looking All Around

Our environment is full of eye candy this time of year with all of the fall colors and textures. I really feel like an explorer trying to get last minute hikes and drives in before the snowfall. Lately, when I'm outdoors the intense blue of the sky catches my attention. I've realized that it is like a “neutral” in my photographs, because it seems to go with all the other hues. Going forward, I will certainly think of this sky blue more when I am planning a palette.

The vibrant colors of fall mostly fit into the warm category when you consider the temperature of the hues. In fall you see a variety of yellows - to oranges - to rusts. However, there are always the mavericks like the wine color in the leaf pile I captured. Once winter starts rolling in the hues become cooler here in Central Oregon. When you are out and about in your area, consider temperature when something catches your eye.

Our store neighbor Deanna, from Flowers by Deanna, really creates magical arrangements. In the one below, the bright violet and green awed me, and the deep orange like pods surrounded by the other greens. When you see something like this that strikes you, take a minute to put on your detective hat and figure out the proportion of each of the color families that you see. You are not only attracted to the various elements of the arrangement, but to the percentage of colors in relationship to the whole.

Texture plays a big role in this photo too. It makes me think about stitching, and how I could add that element in design.

One of my favorite classes to teach is Color Work Table Runner. It embraces the rulerless cutting technique, from my Intuitive Color and Design book, that I love to share with students. Fall colors were on my mind when I picked the palette for the runner below. The main print I selected really expanded my idea of fall with it's raspberry, light aqua, forest green, and bits of white.

Last Saturday our sky was so intense. I stood outside for several minutes taking photo after photo. My husband and I were commenting that when the sun starts moving south in the fall it sets behind the Three Sisters and there is something about the light that creates these marvelous colors.

Take a look around and discover what inspires you!

If you want to make your own Color Work table runner you can find the pattern here, and see a video of Jean talking about how she choose the color pallet for the five examples below on YouTube. Of course, you can find all the supplies you may need at stitchinpost.com .

Dreaming in Color - "Surrounding Colors" with Jean Wells

Who would have thought we would be living through a pandemic and all it's changes? I am sure most of you are in “shelter in place” mode and that everyone is being extremely careful about being safe. Stitching and dreaming about color have saved the day for me during these difficult times, as well as other times in my life. I hope they do for you as well. 

Before we jump into the post, I want to give a “shout out” to Valori and her team. Since this all started, they have stayed in touch with all of you through the Stitchin’ Post newsletter, filled many desperate orders, hand delivered some of them at the back door, and donated hundreds of yards of fabric for masks. Everyone is really pitching in. Violette and Olivia, Valori's 12 and 14 year old daughters, were helping until home school started up a couple of weeks ago. The girls learned to answer the phone, take and fill orders, and how to mail out goods. Their teachers were impressed, as was I, on what they learned to do. Stitchin' Post is a true family business. 

Now, let's talk about color...

Spring is a fabulous time to observe color, as there are daily changes right outside the door. We are fortunate enough to be able to go on walks, and can take drives in the car, but stopping at parks and forest service viewpoints is currently prohibited. My friend Betty shared some photos from the tulip fields near Mt. Angel, Oregon with me. They reminded me of my tulip photo album, and how much flowers have been a color inspiration in my work.

Put on your detective hat when you study an image, and mentally take note of the proportions of the individual colors you are seeing. You are not only drawn to the color that jumps out at you, but the others that surround it. Those surrounding colors make the focal color interesting.

The yellow centers in the red tulips make the red even brighter. It is like a burst of sunlight. The duller greens surrounding the flowers allow the flowers to take center stage. In the photo of the feathered petal tulips, the glorious red orange grabs your attention, but notice how much green there is to support it.

The painterly feeling in the petals is so beautiful in the photo above. Notice how each of the flowers in the distance are slightly different color combinations. Look at how the white and the yellow become “beacons of light” in the composition. Years ago, my dear friend Freddy Moran shared that observation with me about white in a garden.

“Third Grade Art Class” is a quilt I purchased from Freddy that just spoke to me (pictured above). The wide variety of light values make the quilt more interesting than just one light color would. The strong intensity in the red and yellow brings life to the piece.

“Summer Garden” is a quilt that evolved over a year from my class samples, where I focused on similar summer colors. When I went to design the quilt, pure white just seemed to work to highlight the variety of design elements. Freddy and I used a similar palette, but the results are unique to each of us in the quilts we designed. This is the quilt that my publishers chose for the cover of my last book, Intuitive Color & Design.

I find myself going back to the basic color vocabulary that I mentioned in an earlier post whenever I talk about color. These descriptive words help you to have a conversation when you are working with color in a project, or just studying color. Let's review...

• Value - light vs dark
• Intensity - dull (muted) vs bright (clear)
• Temperature - cool vs warm
• Volume (weight) - light weight vs heavy
• Complementary Colors  - opposites on the color wheel (great when you need a spark)

I find myself using the descriptive words above when I talk to myself during the design process, when I am troubled, or looking for just the right color. It occurred to me that these are also forms of contrast that are useful in the design process. I have a tendency to love colors that are all “comfy” together and have an elegance to them, but deep down I know if a design is going to work it needs contrast of some kind. 

Living where I do, nature has been the inspiration I go to. There is something magical that I feel about the sky when I am standing in a grove of ponderosa pine trees looking up. The intensity (there is that word) of the blue against the green of the trees is so beautiful.

The movement of water in creeks and streams, and the colors that are created always interest me. I am so fortunate to live in Oregon, with clear, fast-moving water.

I am working on a mini group challenge quilt at the moment with the theme of “water dance.” All my stones are hand appliqued in place, and the French knots are the water droplets making their way through the stones. It is my current evening stitching project.

I have collected rocks and been fascinated by stone configurations my whole life… This newest untitled quilt of mine was inspired by high mountain streams and glacier stone. I began the process of gathering fabrics with the deep blue greens that I literally feel when I see these places. The ever present greys in the stones were just a given. As I built the palette, I remembered the intense yellow greens barely under the water that jump out at you, and the volcanic cinder stones. The palette just took on a life of its own when I let it, and this quilt was such a joy to make.

In closing, thank you for letting me talk about color and quilting, and feel like I am in the classroom again. I miss all of you special people! I cannot thank my daughter Val enough for carrying on so beautifully with the store and reaching out to all of you, along with her fabulous team, through her online newsletters. We can hardly wait to reopen our doors and set up a “socially distanced” classroom.

Jean fabric choices for this month's Dreaming in Color bundle were inspired by Freddy's quilt, "Third Grade Art Class." It, and Jean's other Dreaming in Color fat quarter bundles, are available here. 

Dreaming in Color - Color Balancing

The past two months have been filled with the bright colors of summer even though it is winter in Sisters. This is the time of year that I work on quilts that will be donated to fundraisers for Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. Our theme for our 45^th anniversary show this year is “My Kind of Town.” As always, I began my project by pulling as many fabrics as possible in the colors I choose to work with. Once that's done, I turn to balancing colors in my composition.

“Summertime” is my 22” x 34” quilt for the Storybook that Dan Rickards of the Clearwater Gallery creates for display during Quilter's Affair and Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. As I thought about this year's theme, what came to mind is our wonderful little town and looking out onto the landscape that surrounds us. As I looked at my fabric choices, I could see a strong contrast in temperature (warm vs cool colors). My challenge would be to balance this contrast out as I made my final fabric choices.

The top portion of the piece is mostly cool colors with a few bits of warm accents. I made a decision to use the deep magenta as an accent throughout. Since I was working mostly with solids, I looked for fabrics with visual texture that would add interest. You can see the textured blue in the sky and the two textures in the cottage.

The photo above is where I start transitioning into the lower field area, there you start to see more warm colors. You can see where greens and yellow ochre begin to play a bigger role. Notice that you still see the magenta, and a bit of really pale pink to mimic the pink in the sky above. Also in this area, French Knot embroidery adds a playful feeling and introduces the idea of a summer garden up close.

To carry through with the landscape feel, the sections of fabric became larger. It took me a bit of time to balance out the colors, always referring to what came above. Proportions of the shades of yellow ochre really came into play. I sketched a playful garden and planned to add over the top of this area. Originally, I was going to hand applique leaves and flowers there.

But, as I added the patterned fabric, it felt really busy and did not honor the colors and piecing above. So, I abandoned the idea and free motion sketched the lines and shapes, then filled in some subtle color with embroidery.

This just goes to prove the point that I tell the students in the classroom: When you get to the last one third of telling the story in the design process, the quilt will tell you what it needs. We just have to listen!

Another recent project related to the upcoming Quilt Show is fabric postcards. I created three 4” x 6” postcards for the WISH Upon A Card project, to be auctioned during Quilter's Affair (two are pictured above). The proceeds go toward an art scholarship for a deserving high school student in Sisters. If you are interested in making a card, go to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show website. You can contact them with your mailing address and request a material packet. During the week of Quilter's Affair, cards will be on display at the High School, and available for sale during the lunch hour. 

For those interested in experimenting with the color palette from my Summertime quilt, we've created a summertime fat quarter bundle with six of the fabrics I used. 

Dreaming in Color - Shades of Winter with Jean Wells

It is January, and as I write this blog it is trying to snow outside. To so many people, the winter colors in the landscape are dull and uninviting. When I take time to sit and really look outside, I see some very interesting combinations of colors. Seeing our Central Oregon sagebrush with snow opened my eyes to the subtle elegance of neutrals.

That imagery stayed with me and I started noticing other combinations, some even with high contrast.

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On a drive to the bay area a few years ago in early March, we came upon Grass Lake. I asked John to stop the car, so I could photograph the beautiful blue color reflecting from the sky on the ice with the warm cream colored grass. This image has stayed with me for a long time, and below you can see how I used those colors in Entwined.

During a recent hike along the Metolius river, I noticed the ice blue water again and then saw the contrast of the warm and cool neutral colors along the river's edge. On down the river, the red berries on the bare branches jumped out at me. This gave me the idea of using red for an accent in a neutral piece.

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It seems mother nature reminds us of the wonderful contrast of green in the moss and lichen you see in the woods. I feel like green is a neutral in nature. And if you look closely all the different shades and tones of green, all work together in nature. When I used to teach sampler classes and a student might be stuck, many times some form of green would save the day.

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This quilt was started in January a few years ago. I pulled mostly neutral fabrics with subtle hints of color that I start to see appearing in March as we approached spring in the high desert. The lichen type of green just seemed to work with this piece.

In 2020, I hope you will take the time to sit down and reflect on what you see, and take time to analyze it. Inspiration is all around us, but until we open ourselves up, it is invisible. Take notes of your observations, try finding descriptive words to describe what you see, and write them down. Happy New Year to all of you.

Jean put together a set of winter inspired fabrics for the January Palette of the Month Fat Quarter Bundle. Use them to spark your own inspiration. 

Dreaming in Color - Color Inspiration through Travel

There is something magical about seeing a place for the first time. I was fortunate to be able to attend Valori Wells and Kelly Sheets Morocco Creatives Retreat in November. Valori has been to Morocco several times and her photos taken there made me want to visit. First of all it is a desert, high blue skies, arid, and full of people in Marrakech. We stayed at Peacock Pavilion just outside the city at a retreat villa.

Being in an unfamiliar environment, I always find new color combinations whether they are cultural, or in the environment. On vacation you are not dealing with day-to-day chores, so you are more open to the “wonder” of the unfamiliar.

My first thought when I saw this door was that the blue and orange are complementary colors on a neutral background. As I looked closer the subtle nuances in the neutral are what really intrigued me. There was so much richness. The surrounding neutrals seem to neutralize the impact of the complimentary colors. I had to take a second look.

Pattern and color are everywhere. The beads alone are a fabulous palette, but they stand out so well draped over the mostly black and white vases. The palette reminds me of my dear friend, Freddy Moran, who is known for working in this palette. The more I look at this photo the more I am tempted to get out my cropping squares and find even more palettes

I cut L shapes from heavy paper to use for cropping ideas. 

The framed piece of the photo inspired this month's fat quarter bundle. Can you see the similarities? 

How many times have you seen a similar display of onions in the grocery store, but do not take the time to study the colors and take a picture. The salad presentation was a piece of art and gave me an idea to use at home. Garden colors have always been my favorite. I associate them with freshness.

This palette was familiar to me, but looking at the cactus up close, with it being against the terracotta wall, I saw more detail in the color as well as pattern and texture.

I was so taken by the simplicity of the desert and the complexity of the land shapes. There is something so calming about a neutral palette. The tent color on the hillside at this eco resort added an accent. You cannot forget the color of the sky, which makes the scene come alive. Not only was I interested in the colors, but the lines and shapes of the land were an inspiration too. When the camels arrived to take us for a ride they brought so much life to the scene.

The pond at the Marjorelle Gardens at the St. Laurent Museum was a feast of blues and greens with touches of terra cotta. I have been pulling together a palette of these colors without even knowing what I might create. They were so happy and summer feeling. Sometimes a season will be an inspiration.

Look at the intensity of color of these pod-like shapes. I use a term “pushing a color” when I want to pick several shades and tints of a color and this is definitely pushing orange.

And another version of blue, I would like to end this post with one last photo that depicts the pattern and colors of Morocco. What an inspiration travel can be when Dreaming in Color!

Dreaming in Color - The Value of a Library with Jean Wells

In my monthly Adventures in Art Quilting class we were discussing how to build a palette of fabrics for future projects. One of my students is very new to quilting and was a bit overwhelmed because she does not have a “stash”. She suggested that I talk about how to build a “library of fabric”, her name for a collection of fabric.

With the cost of fabric rising, many people are more selective and do not buy for their stash as much as they used to. My advice is to really think about the type of work that you are interested in doing, and the colors that appeal to you, as a starting point. When I shop at stores other than my own and make purchases I think about how I might want to use it. If it is something that might play a big role in a project, I purchase a half to one yard. If it is a color new to me and I am attracted to it, but not sure how it will be used I purchase a quarter yard. In my work I have no problem using several smaller cuts of a color if I do not have a larger piece of fabric.  I feel it makes my work more interesting.

In the beginning working from an inspiration photo, or a printed fabric, will give you suggestions where to begin. Then as you see a color that is missing add it to your library.

So my advice is to purchase smaller cuts of fabric and to arrange them in your library by color first and by type of fabric (like cotton, linen, silk, etc.) as your collection grows. This allows you to go to your library during your planning process to pull anything that might work, and then purchase more if needed.

This is a section of my fabric collection. I have chosen to keep prints separate from solids and I separate my stacks into cottons, silks, linens and other textures. Once I have completed a project I sort my scraps into small pieces, strips, and larger cuts of fabric. I keep scraps in Ziploc bags that are put in a drawer and easily accessible. Many times these small pieces add that bit of personality that I need to enhance a palette. It is a lot easier to grab a fabric out of a small bag than to find it on a shelf and cut a small piece that is needed.

Here is an example of how I begin. I took several photos in Pacific Grove, CA at the beach right after a rain when the ground was wet. I was so amazed by the intensity of the wet colors. I started identifying the colors and collecting representative fat quarters and scraps of fabric. The photo below is the beginning of that process. I am still not sure where this will lead, but I love the combination of colors and it is not a palette of colors that I would have come up with on my own. To me that is part of the magic and it is not the standard color harmony off the color wheel.

Several years ago I parked my car near an abandoned warehouse in La Connor, WA. As I was walking to lunch, I passed by a window and took the close up picture below. I love the combination of the blue and the golden yellow-green lichen. When I got home I went to pull a palette of fabric referencing the colors. I found that I had very little blue fabric and not the right color of blue from the window sill. I noticed that I had hardly been using blue in any of my quilts. Well, that has now changed. This experience made me realize the power of a color I was unfamiliar with. I created a small mock up of snippets of the fabrics and glued them to the paper to see how they might work in a quilt. I find this exercise very helpful.

Pinterest is another great source of color ideas. I especially like looking at abstract paintings. Below is an example of one I found.

I made a photocopy of the painting and did some cropping, isolating different combinations of color. Next, I created some small studies using the strata and rulerless cutting techniques that are described in my book, Intuitive Color and Design.

Once I pull any fabric that might work for a project, I arrange them by color in a container where I can see all of my choices. I like to corral the fabrics so that when I am not working it is easy to put them away.

Back to my student conservation, she also suggested that I put together packets of small cuts of fabric to help customers build their own fabric libraries. Here is our first “Palette of the Month” bundle.

Happy Sewing,

Jean

Dreaming in Color – Garden Inspiration

Summer Colors seems like a timely topic to explore this month. Summers in Sisters are magical, even though this year it took longer to arrive. I can hardly wait to go to the nursery in town when it warms up and get plants for the patio pots and fill in my vegetable garden. What I love about gardening are the surprises. You never know if they will all bloom, or exactly how they will look together.

I want to start out with a tip that came from my daughter, Valori, when she was just 21 years old and I had hired her to take photos of some gardens for a book I was writing. She spent two years at art school as photography major and she saw me randomly shooting pictures in the gardens. She said, “Mom, stop for a moment.” As I looked through the lens she said, “it takes less than a minute to move the camera up and down, and back and forth until the image feels right.” It was wonderful advice and I now realize after teaching students about composition for years that we all have an innate sense of balance. We know when it feels right! In my last three books the inspiration photos all came from me.

I have chosen some photos with the summer color theme and I will comment on them and hopefully encourage you to look at color ideas in a new way.

Planting nasturtiums in the planter boxes at the store in mid June is one of my favorite activities. I have no idea where the different colors will appear because nothing has bloomed yet. To me green is nature’s neutral and some form of green will always play well with other colors. Look at the proportion of the golden color in comparison to the bit of red orange and the soft pastel orange. I probably would not of thought of that combination in a quilt, especially the pastel color but with the cool greens it just feels yummy.

The first evening of Quilter’s Affair, I invite all 32 of the teachers to my home for an outdoor picnic dinner. These are the flowers I arranged for the tables that sat on white tablecloths with river stones. I am a huge sunflower fan and have volunteers that come up year after year.  We often talk about temperature when it comes to color and here you can see a cooler yellow in the yarrow compared to the warmer one in the sunflower, and a yellow green in the centers of the little white flowers. Yellow in a variety of ways.

For those of you who live in the northwest, close to Seattle the Chihuly Glass Museum, its outdoor garden is a must see. The landscaping is beautiful and the glass shapes are partnered with plants creating magical scene after scene.

Dahlia’s showcase value and intensity of color so beautifully, like no other flowers. You can also see color combinations that you might never think up on your own.

I love finding new, interesting shaped and colored succulents for my pots. It is hard to even describe the colors but the combination of the sage like green with the rosy red orange and lavender is so sophisticated. To work with this combination for a quilt I would print out the photo on good photo paper and try and match colors to the photo. Then I would pay attention to the proportion of each color and how it relates to the whole. The magic is not just in the colors, but also the proportion of each one to the whole.

I just had to share my volunteer maverick sunflower from my 2018 garden. You can see where these two flowers are joined together. In terms of color the center of this flower really intrigues me as you can see layers of color up close, that from a distance will just look dark greenish brown. The same thing can happen in our quilts when we put two colors side by side in a quilt and you look at the quilt from a distance.

-Jean Wells

Dreaming in Color - Trusting Your Intuition with Jean Wells

I feel like I am “Dreaming in Color” with summer finally here, and my garden and pots all planted. I just love this time of year. Last February, on a ten day trip to Maui, John and I ended up with six days of torrential rain. It was warm and beautiful, but really wet. Thank goodness I put together a bag of linen squares, scrap fabric, and cotton pearl floss. So I was a happy camper cutting out simple stone shapes with my small embroidery scissors and stitching to my heart's content.

The challenge for me was to work with what I had and to design more randomly. I found myself referring to the color vocabulary words (February blog) during the process. I would ask myself “does this one need something darker, brighter, lighter, etc". The words came to me automatically. Sometimes we do not give ourselves enough credit in “trusting our intuition”. And all I had to work with was what was in the bag so I had to find solutions there.

I created small pieces of art from those vacation stones and had them framed, which brought on more color decisions when it comes to the fabric mat and frame. I will share images and comments with you below. They are all going into Valori’s and my gallery show at the store in July. (I always get nervous that nobody will want to purchase them.)

“Vacations Stones” is the name of the series.

Day I - blues and greys were easy, but the bit of magenta and gold added some spice. The deeper blue mat made the stones pop and the warmth of the reddish brown frame I felt it drew you back in.

Day II - This was the hardest group to put together as I had that one peach block so I pulled the green stone with a bit of orange for the other block. Once I felt the three blocks could work together then I choose thread for stitching to unit them. What to do about the mat color??? I finally settled on the deep violet as you can see in the bottom block.

Day III – These are my favorites to work with and very soothing. Texture became really important and fun. Adding all of the texture was fun. I auditioned several colored fabric for the mat and they just did not play well with the elegance of the blocks so I went with a cream colored linen and framed it in soft olive.

Day IV  - This is one of my favorite combinations with the indigo and teal. I was not sure about combining them but I like it. I had to put a bit of orange in as it is opposite on the color wheel from the blues. And I love the deep turquoise linen and indigo frame.

Day  V – This combination was another challenge for me and I was starting to run out of fabric. I had a tiny little scrap of a hand dye fabric that you see in the bottom right hand block and once I picked some friends to go with it then I was off and running. The gold block silk with the gold stitching was a left over piece from a quilt I made several years ago. I was so happy it found a home. For the mat I went with a warm avocado green and a green frame.

Day VI – I set aside the yellow green fabrics right when I started creating the stone and the little pile of fabric grew with the addition of the blacks and prints. This piece feels very playful to me. I searched through my linen pile of fabric and found this print design. It felt really good along with the black frame.