Color for thought

Rachel chose the most interesting colors for our October bee blocks: gold, teal, peach, brown, light purple, pink, warm gray, royal blue, the list goes on. "Seasonal brights" -- it's interesting actually that I have a lot of these colors in my closet, not as much in my fabric stash. She has inspired a host of outfits for me with these color combinations, that's for sure! I'm actually pretty stoked that it's fall so I can wear my boots and scarves again. Well after this heat wave breaks, hopefully we will have a short Indian Summer because I'm over it being 90 degrees at the barn at 11 am.

palette chips from the prompt for this month's Love Circle quilt

I played around with fabrics looking for something resembling an appropriate combination (while trying to avoid the colors she requested we not use - harder than it sounds!) and I just want to pair blue with everything. I think that pop of color just looks so great and unexpected. But I'll restrain and only use it once. I do hope we have the same color definitions -- peachy orange vs red orange, royal blue vs regular blue for instance (one each a "yes" color and one a "no"). I'm taking a leap and making myself not use my beloved linen/cotton blend this time because while I love the color and texture, I think I'd be in for a world of pain if I tried EPP with it during a month where I have limited time to fiddle.

This is the interesting thing about collaborative work - worrying if you'll fit in or not. I find that I worry about this mostly with color and fabric choice, but sometimes I even worry if my seams are even enough. That is when I know I'm getting overly neurotic. In the end, we're all doing this to have fun and contribute towards a beautiful quilt together. I think the perfectionist in me gets projected onto other people as a matter of habit, definitely not because of any prior experience or impressions of those people. I do this at work, too so at least I'm consistent? I guess it just stems from a desire to do well in everything I do. (Dave and I are learning alllll about our inner selves as we prepare ourselves to apply for faculty jobs and think about what is important to us moving forward to the next adventure.)

At any rate, I picked out a bunch of fabrics from my stash and scraps to try combining. We have two blocks to make. I am thinking of pairing that peach and teal print with the solid brown and the blue with the peachy pink flower print, but I may end up making one more with the other two fabrics depending on how I feel about the blue and peachy/pink one when it's done and send all three for Rachel to determine if those colors are suitable or not. I think so, but the blue may be too plebeian and not royal enough (hehe, dork) and maybe someone else might consider that bright pink. I don't but I certainly am open to the fact that others will have different interpretations (especially after putting this picture in the same place as those color chips... but I think it matches up ok with other colors I saw in the mosaic pictures).

The diamonds for two blocks are all basted and ready for assembly. We are doing EPP six pointed stars this month. Perfect because I will likely have more short bits of time for handwork than larger chunks for sitting down at the machine this month. Away we go!