So here’s something for quilters on both sides of the orange fence:  if you have a passion for orange, you’re really going to enjoy this month’s show, which features stunning and innovative uses of it in quilt projects both large and small.  If orange is not your favorite and you tend to stay away from it, you’ll be surprised by what you see:  one of the quilters in the show felt the same way and unexpectedly found herself relying on it for her designs.

Get advice from the pros and see their quilt designs and fabrics using orange.  This month I host Edyta Sitar, Betty Alofs, Pat Sloan, Sarah Whitney, Geri Richardson, Faith Wellman, and Laura Berringer of Marcus Fabrics.  To view the show in Full Screen mode or to embed this slideshow in your blog, just click the Menu link.  Remember to support these wonderfully creative designers by asking for their patterns and fabrics in your local quilt shops!

September’s featured color is orange, a perennial challenge for most quilters.  Orange, more than any other color, pops up as quilters’ least favorite color in my workshops.  Well, no more.  I show you, in Autumn Antlers, how to work with orange and make it one of your favorite colors in your quilt’s color palette.

Orange is one of the brightest colors in the quilt shop, and many only think of it for halloween, pumpkins, and garish college football team colors.  That’s about to change, because I give you artist’s tips on how to work with a challenging color and make it your own.  Eric Carle, author and illustrator of gorgeous children’s books, did this with colors he didn’t like, and they became his favorites.  Orange can become one of yours too.  Trust me.

Autumn Antlers design is fun, funky, and sophisticated, and evokes fall without limiting its place on your table to only the fall months.  This runner would be welcome in any season, any month, in any home.  Timeless design, innovative color, all in one stunning runner.

Autumn Antlers Pattern Update:  $5.95 (delivered early and automatically to pattern series subscribers – keep reading!)  Add to Cart

If you can’t get to the quilt shop to select your own fabrics, no worries.  I’m offering an Autumn Antlers kit as well.  It’s best to choose your own fabrics for your color palettes, but we all have those times when life gets too busy and we just can’t get to it.  I’d rather you be able to do the lesson with a kit than not at all.

Autumn Antlers Kit: $21.95 Add to Cart

Learn by Doing

In addition to learning how to coordinate a fresh autumn color palette, you’ll also discover how to:

• cut and place applique motifs
• learn the best stitches to use for machine applique, including optimal stitch length and width
• improve your machine applique skills by watching two step-by-step videos (COM Subscribers only)
• quilt a freemotion flame design to harmonize with the antler design

So not only do you get a sophisticated and new original design, you update your skills as well.

Last Opportunity to Subscribe and Buy Patterns

September is the last month you can buy a Color-of-the-Month subscription or individual patterns.  Why?  Because these beauties will be offered in a book, along with a bed quilt using the monthly blocks, that will be available in 2011.  I’ll still be sharing the monthly table runner projects for the rest of the year, but they won’t be available for purchase:  you’ll have to wait for the book!

To order the Color Mastery Table Runners enhanced e-pattern. click here: I Want to Master Color

5 Fabulous Ways to Use Red in a Color Palette

July’s featured color is red, in a festive Christmas table runner, as requested by my loyal Color-of-the-Month e-pattern subscribers. They wanted plenty of time to complete their Christmas runner so they could enjoy it for the entire holiday season.  Christmas Cabin uses the traditional red as its main color, but the aqua and cream are anything but expected.  I was inspired by the retro Christmas villages of my childhood, complete with the chapel and town buildings my Mom lovingly placed under our tree every year.

Pantone has declared turquoise as the 2010’s color-of-the-year, and you’ll discover the difference between it and it’s cousins aqua, teal, jade, and other related blue-green colors and which is appropriate for your next quilt palette.  It’s easy to get these closely related colors confused, but not after you make this sweet holiday treat.

You get my original block Mountain Cabin, inspired by the Appalachian foothills of my home, along with the Snow Forest block, which together make a peaceful and charming holiday scene.

Christmas Cabin Pattern Update:  $5.95 (delivered early and automatically to pattern series subscribers – keep reading!) Add to Cart

If you can’t get to the quilt shop to select your own fabrics, no worries.  I’m offering a Christmas Cabin kit as well.  It’s best to choose your own fabrics for your color palettes, but we all have those times when life gets too busy and we just can’t get to it.  I’d rather you be able to do the lesson with a kit than not at all.

Christmas Cabin Kit: $21.95 Add to Cart

Learn by Doing

In addition to learning how to piece the Mountain Cabin block and coordinate a fresh color palette, you’ll also discover how to:

• make a yo-yo wreath for the cabin front
• make Flying Geese without bias seams
• quilt a wood grain design on the cabin walls and roof

So not only do you get a sophisticated and new Christmas design, you update your skills as well.

Learn New Techniques

Flying Geese traditionally have two bias edges that make them difficult to piece accurately, but I show you a technique that eliminates the bias edges for perfect Flying Geese every time.  The yo-yo makes for a decorative wreath, with a button sewn in the middle for a finishing touch.

Forget quilt as desired!  I’ve included quilting designs, the very ones I used in my own project, that give Christmas Cabin wonderful texture. The quilting is the finishing touch that enhances the runner design and gives it a truly sophisticated look.

To order the Color Mastery Table Runners enhanced e-pattern. click here: I Want to Master Color