JWD Publishing Blog

Fuchsia and magenta are so often left out of the color conversation, as purple and the violets seem to get all of the  glory in this region of color. Yet fuchsia and magenta are a vibrant part of our color options, so don’t forget them . If you are not very familiar with these colors, let me introduce them to you.

As you remember from last week’s blog, purple is the middle blending of violet and magenta. Fuchsia is the pure color that lies between purple and magenta. You can see there is a clear difference between fuchsia and its neighboring pure colors purple and magenta (see below). You can see the influence of both purple and magenta in fuchsia.

Beautiful Fuchsia

When I was a child, we called the color that was a brilliant purplish red cerise. Fuchsia was simply a plant with pretty cerise flowers. Much later in life I realized cerise is seldom used as a color term anymore. Fuchsia has become the “in vogue” term for the gorgeous brilliant purplish-red color that lies between purple and magenta. I love the color fuchsia with all of its energy, but it’s almost impossible to find in fabric.

As a side note—remember that color is not static…..it flows from one color to the next. This means that fuchsia is not just one pure color, but it is a collection of pure colors  that flow from purple to magenta. The color shown on the color wheel is the midpoint color between purple and magenta. It represents all of the pure colors that lie between purple and magenta. You will notice some pure fuchsia colors will lean quite close to purple or they will appear to have closer leanings to purple than the fuchsia you see on the color wheel. Other fuchsia colors will lean more toward magenta, showing a slightly “redder” fuchsia than we see here. This dahlia (below) shows fuchsia with a slight leaning toward magenta.

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It’s that time of year when all of a sudden you realize one of your favorite nieces, nephews, a friend’s child—or even your own child is heading off to college in a few days or weeks—– and you meant to make a quilt for the big occasion, but time has slipped away from you. You need something quick and easy with relatively no thinking—-and perhaps you want to use fabrics straight from your stash. We have at least two handfuls of quilts in our pattern collection that would fit the bill. Out of those we have selected three quilts to feature today. They are all perfect for a fast project for that college-bound student. When the weather turns cold this winter, your quilt will be so welcomed by the college student, as he or she snuggles under it feeling that cozy warmth with fond memories from home.

You want to make a quilt that is fast to construct, colorful, and can take the punishment of college life. These three quilts take minimum time. Their designs make it easy to use the colors and/or themes that your college student loves. In fact, these quilts can be made as sophisticated, as wild or as quiet as you wish. Just let your imagination and fabric stash dictate your options. Three quilts that fit the bill of easy, quick, fabric-stash friendly, for college quilts are Jammin’ Jelly by Cindy Wiens, Short Circuit by Mary Hoover and Barbara Persing, and Fat-Quarter Frolic by Larisa Key. Below are pictures of all three quilts. Fat-Quarter Frolic is shown in three versions.

Fat-Quarter Frolic by Larisa Key (shown in three versions)

Larisa Key has a great pattern  that is quick and easy called Fat Quarter Frolic. It’s made from squares and rectangles that are combined into  units to make this quilt. This quilt comes in three sizes, but for a college student, the twin-bed coverlet would be best (64″ x 72″).  Larisa has made many versions of this quilt. Here are three examples showing a variation using Amy Butler fabrics, one using batik fabrics, and the last using Japanese-motif fabrics. This quilt has been extremely popular and we have seen it in many Amy Butler fabrics, as well as other large-motif fabrics by other notable fabric designers. We’ve seen wonderful versions of it using Michael Miller, Hoffman of California, and Kaufman fabrics too.  You simply find fabrics in the colors, motifs, and textures you want…..and start cutting and sewing……

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Hi Quilters!

If you call the Steady Betty company, you will be greeted with a warm friendly hello from Kathy Purdy, owner of Steady Betty. Her company is located in Texas, so she has that wonderful Texan accent. She is very passionate about her Steady Betty products. Kathy gave me detailed information about all of them, which I will share with you over the next few weeks. From what I understand the first product came out about four years ago. That was The Steady Betty Board. Let’s start there.

What is The Steady Betty Board? That is what I first asked Kathy. Here’s her answer: It is a board that is covered with a special material that gently holds fabric in place, making perfectly pressed seams. This board keeps fabric from distorting or stretching. It is especially great for bias edges or bias bindings too.

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Do you love purple? If so, you’re not alone. It’s a sublime color that provides real drama in its purest form, yet it can be ever so soft and subtle when its quieter personality is called upon. So let’s check out this luscious color called purple.

First, I must reveal purple’s greatest secret: Purple is not interchangeable with violet. Also, it’s not another name for red-violet, fuchsia, or magenta. Purple is purple! It has its own personality and it wants to be known for itself.  So today I am an advocate for purple being purple—–and I hope you will be an advocate for purple too.

The Birth of Purple

It may surprise you to know that purple does not exist in a sunbeam, a rainbow, or any other prismatic light. Purportedly, it was given birth by Sir Isaac Newton. He understood the colors in prismatic light were always in the same order—and always beginning and ending with the longest and shortest visible light waves: violet and red. He also noted the colors were not static. They moved from one color to the next with fluidity, changing slightly almost without notice.

As Newton contemplated this band of prismatic color, he decided to stretch it into a curve that formed a circle. By doing so, he brought violet and red* together  When these two colors flowed into one another, a new color was created—purple. In the modern-day color wheel (Ives), purple is the color that lies halfway between violet and magenta (aka magenta red).

*Remember–the rainbow’s or prismatic light’s red is not like our personal vision of red—it is not the strong red of a fire engine nor the powerful red of lipstick or a blood-red rose. The next time you see a rainbow or see any prismatic light, check out all of the colors, but especially check out the violet and the red.

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1.  Look at the section of the color wheel that moves from chartreuse to red-violet. If you were to create a design using this spectrum, what would be your beginning and ending colors? Would you include each color within the range or would you skip colors? Specifically, what would your ideal color inclusions be?

Here are the color names and their numbers in this range:  chartreuse 2, yellow-green 3, spring green 4, green 5, blue-green 6, aqua green 7, aqua blue 8, turquoise/cyan 9, cerulean blue 10, blue 11, blue-violet 12, violet 13, red-violet 14.

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Before moving on to the colors of purple, fuchsia, and magenta, I would like to show you some quilts that incorporate an extended analogous color plan—-a range that includes more than seven colors, but not more than half the color wheel.  Just to jog your mind—an analogous color plan is one that uses closely-related colors. They are usually side by side on the color wheel, but they can be in larger incremental steps, such as every other color within the range, etc. (If you want more information about analogous color plans, see the post  Using an Analogous Color Plan).  

The quilts in this post use varying ranges of greens, blues, and violets. This color spectrum is a beautiful range of colors. Nature must like this combination too, as she uses this spectrum often. In the photo above, the hydrangea blossom is just emerging in soft, subtle blends of aqua blues, blues, blue-violets, violet, and red-violets. When the sunlight hits the leaves, the colors flit from yellow-greens through to blue-greens.  

You can see similar color ranges in quilts, jewelry, wearable art, watercolors, and other paintings and artwork. In this post you will find four quilts that use this expanded analogous range of greens, blues, and violets. They are all colored differently even though their ranges are similar. Today the featured quilts in this analogous color range are by Chris Porter and Lois Dunten.

My Field House Iris Garden by Chris Porter

My Field House Iris Garden was created by Chris Porter from Bristol, England. Rather than using one or two greens for the quilt’s background, Chris used an assortment of greens ranging from yellow-green to dark blue-green. Using many greens in garden quilts create a more interesting background. It also adds richness to the overall design. Chris’s irises are in blues, blue-violets, violets, and red-violets. Touches of yellow, chartreuse, and golden-yellow are included in several of the iris beards.

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