Me and Yellow Green

Do you have a color that you don't care for, seldom use in your quilts, but seem to like it when everyone else uses it? For me that color is yellow-green.

They say (not sure who "they" are) we should use colors that aren't our favorites. For me that would be orange (not going there), purple (it's growing on me) and yellow-green.

Several weeks ago I decided to make Cheryl's quilt Midnight Mystery. It's been on my to-do list and I was excited for Alison Glass's new line Road Trip. I ordered fabric to make the quilt, including a yellow-green solid to use in the background of the star. It's a color I seem to like when combined with teal, which this quilt would feature prominently.

Excited to dive in, I made a block...

I didn't love it, so I made another one...

Then I thought maybe it was the pink...

To me, it was actually better. But then weeks went by and I had no desire to pick the project up again. That was a sign that it wasn't working for me.

This weekend, I found enough of a light aqua in my stash to start over with a new star background...

I liked it! And made another...

And another...

Then decided to cut out the remaining 6 blocks. I think I'm on a roll.

Many years ago, I heard in a class that every quilt should have an ugly fabric. As a new quilter, I took it to heart and did exactly that. And then I disliked that ugly fabric every time I looked at the quilt. And never again did I use an ugly fabric.

I've learned that I'm not going to use colors I dislike. You may see bit of yellow-green in a future quilt, but only in minuscule amounts. I do think it provides a nice little pop of color.

I went a bit crazy buying Alison Glass fabric with all the holiday sales. One out of about 12 pieces was yellow-green. I think that'll work for me!

How about you? Do you use colors or fabrics you dislike?

Design tools

I'm back from a great trip to CA. The girls are crazy fun and for some of my close friends who want to hear updates on the grandkids ~ here is Elyse at 4 1/2 and Madelyn at 2 1/2.

I've had a quilt in my mind inspired by the colors in my rug from Urban Outfitters.

I tried pulling fabrics and just couldn't get it right. In the past, I've pulled thread spools to get the color combinations I wanted. It makes it easy to find fabrics with the color in hand. Today I remembered this wonderful box of Pantone color postcards I bought a few months ago. I found my colors and then started rummaging through fabric.

You get 100 colors to play with in a box.

 I ended up with a nice selection of fabrics to work with! ...Cindy