Welcome to the March Color-of-the-Month slideshow, offering tips on using red-violet in your quilt palette and featuring the most diverse range of fabrics, quilts, and accessories so far. This month I host Patty Young of Michael Miller fabrics, Marcus fabrics, art quilter Michele Hardy, LazyGirl Joan Hawley, and me, sharing fabric designs, traditional quilts, art [...]
Posts under ‘Color Lessons’
Pink: February’s Color-of-the-Month
In the month of hearts, roses, and valentines, pink is a natural for February. Being the only woman in my home, I enjoy touches of pink here and there, so I had a blast putting together this month’s show. Nine terrific designers and fabric companies offer their tips for using pink in a [...]
All Dressed Up . . . .
The cupcakes were baked, decorated, and ready to be nibbled on in a ladylike manner. My studio was sparkling, ready for the Mom & Me Quilter’s Tea guests to take a tour. Their parents won the experience at a silent auction for my son’s school. Books autographed, check. Camera, check. All done a day before.
My [...]
January Newsletter
The January issue of my newsletter is out and it’s filled with promise for the new year. While some resolutions are drudgery (losing weight and going to bed earlier), I personally like to cloak mine with fun opportunities. Like exploring a new aspect of my creativity. My latest newsletter helps me and [...]
Quilting Unit Study for Homeschoolers in E-book Form
I’m proud to announce my Quilting Unit Study for Homeschool Families is now available as an e-book on Smashwords. No matter what e-reader you use, the file format you need is there. Kindle, Stanza, Palm, PC, Mac, Sony, or even for online reading. They’ve got it all.
The cutie on the cover? My little guy, about [...]
White: January’s Color-of-the-Month
Welcome to a new feature in 2010 here at Quilts & Creativity: Color of the Month. The first Tuesday of each month, I’ll be featuring quilt and fabric designers and how they use the featured color in their palettes.
This month? White! Get tips and see quilts from your favorite designers for your own quilts.
5 Creative [...]
Do I Need an Excuse to Visit a Quilt Shop?
More photos from my trip to Athens and Dragonfly Quilt Shop. As you walk in the shop you’re surrounded by gorgeous fabrics and samples that you can’t wait to make! Love the beautiful white armoire filled with goodies. The shop had a Kaffe Fassett table to get quilters excited about his workshop at Dragonfly. Deb [...]
Behind the Scenes
After I shot this video at Dragonfly Quilt Shop in Watkinsville, GA, I gave a lecture to the Cotton Patch Quilt Guild in Athens, and drove home for a late-night arrival. The same day, my elder son attended a workshop at the local Apple store on how to use iMovie.
I’ve been the computer expert in [...]
Beautiful Mondays
Most people dread Mondays. After all, they mean back to work, away from home and family. And rainy Mondays are the worst – as it’s doing here in Georgia today (the photo is from Amicalola Falls on a sunnier day).
I’m deciding on a different outlook. Mondays present a great day of opportunity. Monday is a [...]
Fall Workshops and Quilt Shows
Fall just begs for a new quilt, doesn’t it? I have only a couple of workshops left in the fall schedule! Be good to yourself and schedule an artist date by signing up for my workshops. Then get even more inspiration at the fabulous quilt shows coming up – of course I expect you to [...]
Anatomy of an Art Quilt
My lecture at Ann Litrel’s gallery last Friday was delightful – thank you to so many of my friends, readers, and students who came out and supported me. I talked to gallery visitors as they stopped in and then my lecture was at 7p.m. I talked for only a short time about each art quilt, [...]
A Real Book’s Lasting Value
I want my work to last. Longevity is one of the three main goals I have for my books. The other two? A post for another day.
I realized long ago that it took just as long to write a book that was trendy and out of print after two years as it did to write [...]
May/June Email Newsletter
The latest issue of my email newsletter is out and is bursting full of color potential for your quilts and your fabrics! Here’s a sneak peek:
I answer the #1 question I received during my April/May book tour with a new video
I offer exercises for incorporating the 20 new hot colors for quilters into your quilts [...]
February Newsletter Hot Off the Press
February’s Quilts & Creativity newsletter went out this week, and I can’t wait for you to see it. It includes last-minute details on my book launch this Friday, an opportunity to win a color consultation with me, the scoop on fresh, innovative spring color palettes, a sneak peek at a new product I’ll be [...]
Color and Inaugural Fashions
Did you notice the colors our presidential families wore to the inauguration? Among a sea of black wool coats, both men and women accessorized in bright, vivid colors. And the most popular?
Yellow. And that wasn’t an accident. Michelle Obama’s yellow dress and jacket were the most highly-contrasting color she could choose to be visible next [...]
Everything You Wanted to Know About Color . . . .
Ok, well maybe not everything. After all, it’s only an hour. But what an hour it will be. I’ll be chatting with Morna McEver Golletz in the Professional Quilter Cafe, and of course the topic will be my favorite: color in quilts. What an artist date!
What I’m most excited about is having a one-on-one where [...]
Holiday Goodies in My November Newsletter
The November issue is out, and I included some incredible articles:
how to keep a color journal
how to orchestrate the colors in a “blended-type” quilt
a fabulous source for free machine quilting patterns
my favorite cranberry sauce recipe
details on my Twelve Days of Christmas giveaway
You are on the email list, right? Well, if not, you can sign up [...]
Quilt Project Runway: Katie Pasquini Masopust
Katie Pasquini Masopust has a new book on creative quilt design called Design Explorations for the Creative Quilter: Easy-to-Follow Lessons for Dynamic Art Quilts. All about taking inspiration from photos and artwork and using them as a source for your quilts. Katie professes not be good at drawing realistically, so she takes her photographs and [...]
Chatting about Color with Fabric Designer Elizabeth House
Today we have a special guest here at Quilts & Creativity: Elizabeth House, student and designer of the newly-released LizzyDish from Andover fabrics. I’ve always wondered how a fabric starts from an idea to actually making it onto the printing press, and Elizabeth shares her thoughts on design, color, and how she envisions using LizzyDish [...]
The Aha Moment for Fiber Artists
Multimedia message, originally uploaded by Colorful Quilter.
My favorite insights as an instructor are when I see the actual moments my students really get it: that singular moment when they realize they’ll never see color, fiber art, or quilting quite the same way.
We had lots of those moments in my Color for Fiber Artists workshop at [...]
Making a Quilter’s Color Wheel Tutorial
I’m so excited! I’ve created a tutorial on Making a Quilter’s Color Wheel, and you can click on the slidecast here to view it. This took me a couple days to do: an afternoon to shoot the photos and another day to make the slideshow, record the audio, upload and troubleshoot.
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Color Lesson 10: Understanding the Role of Intensity in Your Quilt
Intensity is probably the least understood of the three elements of color (hue, value, and intensity). Intensity refers to how bright a color is: does it shock you into needing sunglasses? That’s an intense fabric. Does the fabric fade into the background so much you don’t even notice it? That’s [...]
Color Lesson 9: Using Value to Define the Design in Your Quilt
Value is the lightness or darkness of a hue. Value is essential to create enough contrast to recognize the design in your block and quilt. Without value contrast, your quilt blocks simply blend into one another without any recognizable design.
Value is not a color or a hue. It is how light or [...]



