Have you ever tried to have a drink mixed of red vine with lemon? I guess it wouldn’t taste at all. And so are some fabrics we have in our drawers – they don’t fit together well.

But there is a simple trick: Put something in the middle, to create a connection, so put a yummy golden grilled chicken in the middle of your casserole, add your tasty red vine and decorate with sour lemons.

Something is missing? Could be a special sauce made of white cream spiced with nearly black juniper berries, to get the necessary deepness of taste.

I think now there is a wide scale to eliminate colors for a design.

And to make it smoothly I put some silver shimmering green leafs of basil on the top.

Bon appetit!

Leftovers

Inspired by the excellent hints of Bonnie Hunter how to use all your stash I tried the “Hidden Pinwheels” and sewed a few blocks of leftovers of a bed quilt I had given to my mother. (I’m not so in love with all the “brownies”, but in her house those colors fit so well).

I separated the scraps in two halves: lights and darks. And so you can find out a pattern, one block has a darker rhombus, the next a lighter one.

It was a fun using the hints for efficient sewing.

Color formula 2

I often like to use an impressing picture for example of a landscape

and take the most important colors as a guide for my quilt design. Here I could use a very popular color scheme from darkest blue to white

which colors my design like this

I think it's not too bad, but the colors are very pure. May be a good effect (think of Japanese indigo quilts), but could be also a little bit boring. So my second try will be to look for more nuances. In the picture I saw greens and browns too.

This wider range looks livelier.

Well, I like this one better, but best I like to add a very little pinch of exotic spice, means a contrasting color like a warm red in these cool blues.

That will do.

Color formula 1

Choosing and combining colors is for me like cooking. One has to find the right measurement of ingredients and to add a few yummy specials. And the most important is how it is spiced:

Oh, too dull, seems insipid and needs definitely more salt and pepper, perhaps a little bit chilli

But this one has got too much sweetener. Bah, such a toothache ...

For me nature is a perfect guide to find colors with brilliance which aren't garish at all. Just look at a picture of landscape or a flower like this marigold.

This seems to be the right luminosity to me

I found this wonderful example for my "color formula":

Isn't it a beauty? Simply using scraps in easy pieced blocks, but wonderful contrasting colors.
(I found it as an advertisement of a German manufacturer for quilting equipment)

A surprisingly Japanese wedding ring

That’s why I love the Japanese magazines: I get to see Quilts, which show a traditional block such as wedding ring in a completely different way.

Rosenmontag

On Rosenmontag in Germany a lot of people like to have fun with dress up as another person (perhaps a little bit like American people do on Halloween ). Voilá - here are "Pipi Langstrumpf" (hasn't she got nice pigtails) and her little son "Zorro"

Result of a Personality-Quiz

You Are An INFJ

The Protector You live your life with integrity, originality, vision, and creativity. Independent and stubborn, you rarely stray from your vision - no matter what it is. You are an excellent listener, with almost infinite patience. You have complex, deep feelings, and you take great care to express them. You would make a great photographer, alternative medicine guru, or teacher.

What's Your Personality Type?