Color, color, color ...

The leaves have started to turn. I noticed as I gazed out my office window late this afternoon that the canopy of trees makes a stained glass window over my yard. And it's only just begun. Breathtakingly beautiful.

It will be dipping to 37 degrees tonight according to the weather forecast. I'm afraid that means summer is over. I must say that it came to quite an abrupt end. Seems that just the week before last I was noticing how spectacularly beautiful the days had been for quite a stretch. Time to let go now, let nature give us her new suit of autumn color and the weather that accompanies it. I can always bring my attention to the current season. Love to death these changes from summer into fall, before long it will progress from fall into winter, glory be when it progresses from winter to spring, and finally to summer again. Isn't it just splendid!

Color in my work this week as well. Tonight I sewed the last strip onto the central panel of my new quilt. I have absolutely, all-out enjoyed sewing this quilt. It's been tremendous fun and excitement. There is so much color in it, every strip was an adventure.



I think the method I devised to ensure a good distribution of color, and to increase my chances of good effect, was quite successful. I don't see any puddles of color and overall it's a happy and fun piece. It is still--at least partly--random. Here's what I did. ...

I sorted all the colors into groups: yellows, oranges, reds, blues, greens. purples, and neutrals (of which there was a good amount).

Each strip was made of only two colors (which were picked out of their respective piles somewhat randomly, though I kept an eye on my favorites) plus neutral. I made up 6 sets of color, so there are 6 sets of strips.

Strip 1: reds and purples and neutrals
Strip 2: greens and yellows and neutrals (complements to strip 1)
Strip 3: oranges and reds and neutrals (red complements green in strip 2)
Strip 4: blues and greens and neutrals (complements to strip 3)
Strip 5: purples and oranges and neutrals (orange complements blue strip 4)
Strip 6: yellows and blues and neutrals (complements to strip 5)
repeat (yellows in strip 6 complements the purples in strip 1)

And because the strips of one color are in several hues, shades, and saturation the overall effect still looks quite random.

I cut the strips 2" wide and after sewing each stripe is 1.5" wide. 6 Strips makes a block 9" wide. I made 7 blocks giving the panel a 63" width. The strips are 72" long (they will be after I trim them down). I will add 9" or 10" of border on all 4 sides giving the finished quilt dimensions of 81" x 90".

The first border is already cut and sewn together. It will be 1" wide (it's cut to 1.5" wide, .25" seams). The middle border will be 8" and the outside border, 1" or 2". Here's the first border all rolled up. You can't see it in this pic but I arranged each strip of color in the order of the rainbow and there are no neutrals in it:


Color!!