En Provence & The 3-in-1 Color Tool.

This post is for those who asked “which colors” from the 3-in-1 color tool are the “right” ones we need for the mystery.

First of all, there IS no right one.

Remember, any time that you choose a color palette you have to leave room for variety and variations.

While paint chips and color cards can help you weed out shades that just won't work, for instance -- greens that are either too grey or too brown to go with the ones that are more yellow green, you will ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS want to include fabrics within your color family that push the boundaries in both directions.  Some darker, some deeper, some lighter.

And sometimes, even a bit of CLASH is good.  You may have chosen paint chips, but we are NOT painting a flat wall here.  We want a quilt with life and depth, a quilt that shares who you are, what you like.

I have often said that our personal stashes are as individual as our own signatures.  Let your quilt make a statement that is as uniquely you as your own handwriting is.

But paint chips and color tools are a GREAT place to start and very handy to have on hand for the initial choosing of color families that we are going to work with for our En Provence Mystery.

Magenta

Can you see the central shade on the chart with the white writing on it?  This is the true shade.  The shades on either side of the pure color are what happen when we lighten, darken, or start to push it toward the next color family in the color wheel.  See how they get more purple toward the bottom? Lighter toward the top?

The fabric from my stash was as close to the pure magenta as I could get.  But it wouldn't matter if I chose a fabric that was a little lighter, a bit more purple.  As long as I have contrast with the dark and light purples in the quilt, I'll be just fine.

Green

In your greens you are going to remember that green may end up next to yellow so you will want to stay with greens that are a bit darker.  I showed THIS side of the 3-in1 color tool because I am including a variety of these greens -- BUT ---in the right hand column, see the grey-green grouping at the top?  These didn't make me happy.  The center grouping is a bit too light, but the bottom grouping is right in the range I am shooting for.

If you look at the left hand column, about half way down in the center margin you will see the word PURE. Count PURE as number one, and count down 7 shades.  These are all in the realm of what I used in my greens.  

When I lay this card down on my fabrics I can easily tell if something is "too blue"  or "too grey".  It really helps me.

Dark Red-Violet

Our dark purple paint chip is somewhere in the realm of dark purple BETWEEN Red Violet and Blue Violet.  Doesn't this remind you of all of the color crayon names in that new box you opened up on the first day of school?  It does me!

Find the purple that says PURE in white.  And go one slot above, and one slot below.  And include some of these too:

Dark Blue Violet

When lavender grows in fields, you don't find just ONE shade of purple.  I've thrown dark red-violet and dark blue-violet in my quilt.  Find where it says PURE.  You can go 2 shades above and two shades below.  Just remember that these dark purples need to contrast with the light purples:

Light Purple

This is asctually the same card, just pulled the shade from the lighter side of the color family.  Now look at the color wheels on this  card!  Do you see the Analogous wheel?  Magenta and Purple are side by side!

Now look at the second complimentary wheel at the bottom.  Purple/yellow/green!  Nature knew what it was doing when it put this beauty together!

Perfection!

My light purples contrast with my dark purples much like this ad that popped up in the side bar of my Facebook yesterday!  LOL!

I guess our colors are all the rage!

Yellow

Find where it says PURE on the 3-in-1 color tool.  We don't want to go TOO light with the yellows or they may not contrast enough with the neutrals in the quilt.  Check the top right color wheel on the card.  What is yellow complimentary to?  PURPLE!  You can go a shade to either side of the pure yellow, but this yellow still needs to contrast against your green as well as your neutrals.  Prints are okay on the yellows.  Other colors on the yellow as long as you can see the yellow background are also okay.

I have found that having this handy tool in my hot little hands has helped me greatly with choosing and weeding out scraps when working on a quilt with a planned color theme.  It has helped me choose complimentary, analogous and split complimentary colors that really bring life to a quilt when I couldn't quite decide what would be best.  I've even used it when trying to decide which color of binding would be best on a quilt to set off what is going on within the quilt.

And as I'm typing up this colorful blog post, this photo just came in from Pam Heyna:

Doesn't everyone need a little multicolored cauliflower in their lives?  Especially if it is in the colors of En Provence??  Green, purple, neutral and yellow.  The only thing missing is MAGENTA!  Thanks, Pam. 

 This was fun to wake up to this morning!

My yesterday.

Yesterday was a busy day in Quiltville. My thanks to the Hubster for helping me get invoice box number 10 out the door, so happy to say we are now all the way up to October 27th when I left for Quilt Market. 

We arrived at the cabin last evening right at dinner time, throwing steaks on the grill for dinner and just taking a breather.

We are up here to meet with a realtor today and get our beloved place on the market. Something better awaits. Today we start to look at property.  There are a couple things of interest that we want to see.

I'm not having an easy time with this.  How is it that other people outside of my family can have such an influence over my freedom and happiness.  I am sure that SOMEONE will love the cabin as much as I have, and they will enjoy the "resort" type community that is slowly engulfing this mountain through the HOA board.  But it just isn't me.  It's not how I want to live.

We are looking for a place with acreage and long range views.  If the cabin we find doesn't have a large enough studio space, we'll have room to build me the dream studio I've always wanted.  It may take some time, but one thing is for certain.

The right thing can't come along until you let the wrong thing go.

Quiltville Quote of the Day!

Letting go has always been difficult for me, but I'm doing it.  Sometimes it is harder to move on than to stay put and just deal, but you have to KNOW when it is time to make the choice and do it.

I look forward to sharing this new adventure with you.

And I found it appropriate that this quote is on an antique log cabin quilt found at Quilt Market.  

So many lessons have been learned at Quilt Villa.  On to Quilt Villa II!

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