We are heading into our grand two weeks of fall here in Texas, and it’s got me thinking about color more and more. Ok I joke a bit, fall is longer than two weeks, it’s just interspersed with more days of summer so it’s not really a coherent season, but the trees and grasses do change color. This is my favorite time of year, and these colors have always spoken to me at a deeper level, I think because to my eye they signify the end of summer and the cool crisp days of fall and early winter.
Lately, however, I have been noticing a shift in my perception of color. I notice more color. All around me. All kinds of colors. I am drawn to more palettes than I used to be. As I’m sewing more and more again, after having been ill, I am finding that I am surrounding myself with a cacophony of color. I am working on two quilts in particular, one in Americana colors (think tea dyed red, white and blue) and the other is a rainbow Kaffe Fasset. I think that’s pretty much getting to the end points on either side of the spectrum. They both make me gleefully happy for totally different reasons.
The Americana one is my wheel house. Traditional colors. Homey. Inviting. Homespun, you might even say. I’m going to back it with a brushed flannel so it will be one giant hug of a quilt when I look at it. Those colors are what say warmth and inviting to my eye. (Everyone is different, that’s just to my eye).
The Kaffe quilt is new for me. I’ve been doing more work with brights lately, and let me tell you this thing is B-R-I-G-H-T! Loud. Shouting with exuberant joy. It will still be a hug but this is more the hug I get from my chocolate Lab, that is all bouncy and ends with a lick on the face. Looking at it makes me smile. I’m fairly sure when it is done, it will be viewable from space.
I have always been fascinated by people who knew, when you asked, exactly what their favorite color is. I found that often my answer was YES. YES to color. I don’t have a favorite exactly. It depends on the day, the mood, the situation, the time of year, so many factors go into what makes a favorite color for me that it is always changing, yet the one constant is YES to color. Lots of it.
