Let's Talk Color! Let's get ready for Holiday Extravaganza!

It has been an exciting week!  Last weekend we wrapped up Spring Getaway 2019.  Then, Studio 180 Design revealed a new tool and now I'm one week closer to kicking-off my next Mystery Series, Holiday Extravaganza!

First, let's talk about Spring Getaway 2019!  It was a fantastic four days!  It was so nice to catch up with so many of you, in person, after a long winter.  The Lake Morey Resort was fantastic.  We had rain a few days, but who cares, any day you can wake up near water , are spending your day quilting and with people who love to quilt, it is a good day! 

Lynn and I got to meet a few "new-to-us" quilters.  We laughed, we sewed, we had fun and made tons of progress!  Thank you to all the quilters who came and enjoyed.  Lynn and I greatly appreciate the support!

Spring Getaway 2019 ~ Lake Morey VT

You can check out more photos on my Sew on the Go Facebook page.

Most of the ladies are coming back for our Spring Getaway 2020, April 29th-May 3rd.  However, there are 5 open spots!  You can get more information on my website. 

You can download the registration form, completed and scan/mail.  Additionally, you can email Lynn and I (contact information is on the form), and let us know you are sending the registration form with a check.  The five spots will go to the first five quilters to get their registration form and deposit in.  Good luck. 😁

Next, let's talk about the new Studio 180 Design tool, Wedge Star!  Designed to make a variety of different blocks based on 45º sub-units, ranging from simple kaleidoscope blocks to complex stars with diamond points going north, south, east and west.

Studio 180 Design ~ Wedge Star

Can you say 22 different size options!  This will keep your creative mojo going with unlimited designs. I'm already working on a pattern, Starflower Surprise.  It should be out in a couple months.  It is actually one of the projects at Spring Getaway 2020!    In the meantime, the tool comes with a free pattern, Freelancer.

Freelancer ~ Free with the Wedge Star Tool

One more thing, before we talk color.  For all of the quilters completing their Sunset on the Sound, please email me photos of your completed quilts (michelle.hiatt@sewonthego.net).   I can pull a photo from Facebook, but it isn't always the best quality.  Next week, I plan to put up a virtual trunk show of all the quilts I receive via email.  It is going to be fabulous!  Here is a full photo of mine.

Add caption

Remember, if you missed out on the series, you can purchase the entire series at: Sew on the Go Etsy Shop.  Everyone of the SOTS quilts I've seen to date is just fabulous!

Let's Talk Color!  In preparation for my Holiday Extravaganza Mystery Medallion Quilt Series, I want to give you a few tips on sorting your Fat Quarters, understanding your color plan within your Fat Quarter pack, so you know best how to use them over the next few months.  Plus, categorizing your Fat Quarters into groups, so that I can help you to know when it will be best to use those fabrics.

If you missed the fabric requirements, you can get details on last week's blog post or download at my Sew on the Go website (scroll to the bottom of the page).

So, many of you have emailed, messaged, texted me and asked if the Mystery needs to be holiday fabric.  As I stated in last week's blog and the download, it does not.  I think it will be very appealing in holiday fabric, but it does need to be in holiday fabric.  However, you will still want to have 3-4 colorways, within your 24-28 Fat Quarters, in addition to your background. 

Why Holiday?
I challenged myself with a Holiday theme quilt because I personally have several bundles of holiday fabrics, from years past, that I haven't used.  I've purchased them, have great intentions to make a holiday quilt and it just didn't happen.  The next thing I knew, it was the holiday season and I didn't have a quilt.  I figured if it happen to me, it has happened to others.  So, I figured stitching a couple hours a week, making a block or a few small blocks, over the course of 4 months will get keep me (us) on track and I (we) will have a holiday quilt in the end.  In time for the holidays!

Aside from the manageable weekly clues, I've created a Facebook Group that will be of great inspiration to keep you going.  I highly recommend if you are on Facebook to join.  The Timeless and SOTS facebook groups were and are the highlight of my day.  The members are so inspiring!  The new Facebook Group, for this Mystery, is Holiday Extravaganza Mystery Series. 

Please. PLEASE, answer the screening questions.  If you do not, you will be automatically declined to the group.   If you want to invite friends, who want to join in on the fun, feel free to get them involved!  However, make sure they subscribe to my weekly newsletter, and then send (IM or email) them the link to the group.  If you invite them through the group, they don't answer the questions and end up being auto denied.   The reason,  I asked the questions, is to keep the "watchers" out, we want participants who are actually making the mystery.  We already have 179 members as of this morning!

Okay, now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's focus on color. 

Open the Bundle!
I want you to pull out the Fat Quarter Bundle you are going to use (or the photo of a bundle you are thinking about). 

Moda ~ Vintage Christmas (from a prior year)

Now, open the bundle up (you have to do it at some point).  Open up the Fat Quarters and then refold them just into a quarter.    Like I did with my Alison Glass Holiday fabric below.  This will allow you to really see the fabric.

Andover ~ Alison Glass ~ Holiday

Identify
Let's identify what the color plan is within our color bundle.  Let me start with my more Modern line, Holiday.   I pulled out my Color Wheel and laid out my fabric in the order their color falls on my Color Wheel.

With the exception of Orange, my Holiday bundle ranges from Magenta (17) to Blue-Green (6).    So, a very large Analogous color plan.

So, when I'm selecting fabric for my blocks, I'm not always going to be about to go across the Color Wheel, for a Complementary color, which is my "go-to" color plan.  I'm able to go across the color wheel for the Pinks and Greens, but not for the other colors.  Therefore, I'm going to approach my fabric selection with one rule; I'm not going to select colors next to each other.  For example, If I select Yellow, I'm going to put it with Pink or Blue, not Green.  I hope that make sense.

Other thing I noticed, I may not be able to use the lighter fabric in the bundle, as they are really close to my White Background.  Therefore, I'm going to need a few more fabrics to get to my 24 useable fabrics.  So, I went into my Alison Glass blender fabrics, and added my additions to the pile.

I tried to add fabrics, for the colors that I felt were represented less in the bundle.    For instance, I only had a couple fabrics representing Yellow, Green, etc.

Okay, now let's look at my Vintage Christmas bundle.

Here, I have a basic double Split Complementary Plan; Red across from green, blue across from orange/pink.  So, for this bundle, I will be able to go with my "go-to" color plan, Split Complementary.   For this Bundle, I have 40 fabrics, so even with the light fabric, I still have plenty of selection.

Categorize
Next,  I need you to categorize your fabrics.  Since you have so many selections (24-28 fat quarters), and you do not know what is to come, you may not know how best to use them.  Since I have the plan, 😇,  I need for you to trust me.

So, I want to divide your fabric into Large Prints, Directional Prints, Medium Prints and Tone-on-Tone/Small Prints.  Ideally, you should have a few fabrics from each category.  Directional is not required, but if you have them, I have a place for them.

So, seperate your Large Prints and keep those together.  I will let you know when a block would work best using a Large Print.  Here are mine.

Holiday:

Large Prints

Vintage:

Large Prints

Seperate your Directional Prints, again I will let you know when it is best to use them: 

Holiday:

Directional

Vintage:

Directional

Seperate your Medium Prints:

Holiday:

Medium Prints

Vintage:

Medium Prints

That should leave you with your Tone-on-Tone and Small Prints.  Keep those together:

Holiday:

Tone-on-Tone or Small Prints

Vintage:

Tone-on-Tone or Small Prints

Easy, right!

Background

Okay, last let's talk background.  Take your Fat Quarters to your local quilt shop or your stash.  Pull your background options and lay out a few different prints on your background.  If you have a fabric with a touch of a background color, make sure to lay that fabric on the background options.  Even if you aren't planning on using that fabric in your quilt, it will tell you thintendeded background color that the designer thought would go best with that fabric.  You don't have to follow their advice, but they usually know what they are doing.  😊

Holiday -The white in my fabric matches the white in the background

Vintage - Again, I comfortable that the white in the fabric matches closely with the white in my background

Also think about the style.  For my Vintage, it is very traditional Christmas fabric, so I selected a white on white fabric that has Christmas bulbs and other fun holiday elements.

Background has fun Holiday Style

For my Holiday fabric, it is a very modern Holiday fabric and I felt a white on white fabric with just some basic line (or swirls in this case) worked best.

Background has a loose looping or swirls

I hope this makes sense, I explained as best as I could.  

For anyone who would like more help with Color.  I offer a Quilting and Color 101 Workshop to Quilt Shops and Guilds.  I actually have one scheduled at The Yankee Quilter, in August.  You can get more information here: The Yankee Quilter Website

Okay, I think that is it for this week.  Next week will bring Clue #1.  So, get busy if you haven't selected your fabric.  Hopefully, the steps above will help you look over your fabric options and make you more comfortable with your selection or to make your selection. 

  

My Fabric Watchdog

I will leave you with a photo of Jax keeping a close eye on me when I was taking the photos, for this post, a couple days ago.  He is too cute.

Keep stitching,

Michelle