JWD Publishing Blog

Two much-loved warm colors are orange-yellow and golden-yellow.  They can be gloriously evocative in their most brilliant, pure forms. Although we use these colors in our spring and summer gardens, they really come into their own during fall. Then we seem them in full glory. Actually, we see these colors on a daily basis in their less pronounced hues. In fact, we usually pay no attention to them in  their quiet, less obvious colorations.  Let’s take a look at these two colors. It should be interesting to see how they change their mood as they change their intensity or brilliance.

Orange-yellow and golden-yellow are the last colors in the circle (#23 & #24) in a 24-step color wheel.  In their pure form they can be wonderfully luminous. They exude warmth and cheerfulness. They can over-power at full strength, if they are allowed unfettered space.

As you know, there is not just one single pure orange-yellow or golden-yellow in the world. There are many. The orange-yellow shown on the color wheel is the orange-yellow that lies halfway between yellow-orange and golden-yellow. Orange-yellows on one side of this mid-point color will subtly veer toward yellow-orange—becoming slightly more orange in makeup as they move toward yellow-orange. On the other side of the mid-point orange-yellow, the hues will lean toward golden-yellow. The orange-yellow hues that lie close to the golden-yellow border will be much yellower than the mid-point orange-yellow.

The same can be said for golden-yellow. The golden-yellow on the color wheel is the halfway-point color between orange-yellow and yellow. On one side of the mid-point color, the pure hues will lean toward orange-yellow; on the other side, they will veer toward yellow. Hence, the two colors on the color wheel represent many subtly different pure orange-yellows and golden-yellows.

Golden Yellow

This spool of golden-yellow thread illustrates the luminous capability of this color. Notice how the hues in the bottom section of the spool move toward orange-yellow. There are a few areas in this image where the color appears to be orange-yellow rather than golden-yellow. Can you see this?

Summer flowers brilliantly color gardens all over the world in golden-yellows.   Here, these sun-drenched daisies provide rich, warm golden-yellow hues for our summer garden delight.

Most of us recognize golden-yellow in its most brilliant hues. These can be very exciting colors to work with in art. They also make wonderful accent colors in a room or in a landscape. As golden-yellow is diluted in brilliance, soft, muted hues are created. Let’s look at some examples of these muted colors.  I think you’ll like what you see……..

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To get you into the mood for fall and give your home a new seasonal quilt to decorate your walls with, here’s Alex Anderson’s classic fall quilt Welcome Home. Welcome Home is our most popular fall quilt pattern. It comes in three sizes: wall, lap, and twin bed.

Welcome Home by Alex Anderson

This charming quilt can decorate your entry hall, your family room, or some wall that needs a quilt to bring it warmth and cheerfulness this fall season. If you have a twin bed that is need of a fall quilt, perhaps this is the quilt for you. It is entirely pieced. Here you can see  the wall quilt. It is made from three different blocks: a leaf block, a house block, and a star block. Two detail views of this quilt can be seen below.

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Oranges are rambunctious, attention-getting, vibrant colors in their purest form. It’s almost impossible to ignore these colors with their strong visual impact. Their high energy and warm brilliance make them the most provocative of all colors—they elicit the strongest emotional reactions of all pure colors. With few exceptions, most people have a love/hate relationship with pure orange (and yellow-orange). There are very few people who are middle-of-the-roaders with regard to orange. (My grandson Joseph absolutely loves orange, so I am always on the hunt for very cool orange clothes, and that has been fun. This has caused me to look at strong orange hues with new eyes.)

As in other parts of our lives, the oranges immediately capture our eyes’ attention in the garden. I can look at a grouping of beautiful roses, but the one my eye is drawn to naturally is Tropicana or  perhaps another equally stunning orange rose. How can one not behold the beauty of an orange rose with the sun glowing on it?

Orange is the color that lies halfway between the two primaries yellow and magenta (see illustration below). This means the mid-point pure orange has exactly the same amount of magenta in its make up as it does yellow. You can imagine, then, why orange is such a wild, flamboyant, energetic color. It’s really hard to corral.

Today we are looking at the pure colors of both orange and yellow-orange. As you can see (below), yellow-orange has more yellow in its makeup than orange does, but it evokes the same reactions as orange. Some people will prefer the slightly cooler orange while others will prefer the warmer yellow-orange.  If your medium is fabric, probably you will find more yellow-orange fabrics available than orange ones.

There are some very yummy foods out there that are in the orange/yellow-orange colors, including oranges, cantaloupes, peaches, apricots, carrots, and squashes.  There are some very beautiful colors that are created when orange and yellow-orange are diluted through lightening, darkening, or graying. We’ll take a look at a few.

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Before we begin thinking about red, I want to let you know my new book Adventures in Design is now out. Many of you asked me to let you know when it was available, so this is my notice. It should be at your favorite quilt/fabric/book store now. Many quilters and fabric artists shared their talents and beautiful artwork in this book by letting me use their art to help illustrate various design concepts. As some of you know, this book has been many years in the making and it’s great to have it completed.  It was recently reviewed by Darra Williamson on her  group blog See How We Sew. If you’re interested, you can find the review  at: http://seehowwesew.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/adventures-in-design-a-bookshelf-must-have-for-quilters-artists-and-more/. Thanks.  Joen

Now, back to color……………………..

When you think about the color red, what color do you see in your mind?

Is it fire-engine red,  candy-apple red,  red-velvet, scarlet red, brick red, rosy red, crimson red,  vermilion red,  tomato red, burgundy red,  oxblood red, wine red, ruby red, cherry red,  carmine red,  venetian red, earth red, poinsettia red, cardinal red—–whew!…… or some other red?  The red you visualize most likely will be different from a red another person visualizes.  So first, it’s important to realize there is not just one red in the world. There are an amazing number of reds with specific names. Visualizing your red has much to do with your childhood experiences, the crayons you played with, your culture, and even where you grew up.  So today let’s see what red is all about.

Here’s one sampling of a red. This is a warm red—better known as an orange-red. Informally, some might call this tomato red.

Red has the longest wave length of all the spectral colors in a light wave (or sunbeam). I wonder if this lengthened wave brings about red’s ability to not only attract attention and evoke many strong emotions, but to cause noticeable physical changes within our bodies. Red is noted for bringing about strong feelings of passion, aggressiveness, anger, energy, excitement, and courage. It is a color identified with love, sex, and power. BTW, have you noticed how many men wear red ties when they are making a major presentation or want to show they are in power?

Red can physically increase your breathing rate and stimulate your heart to beat faster.  Also, it stimulates your nervous system, raises your pulse rate, and increases your body  tension. Is it any wonder that many sports teams use red as their uniform color? Red also stimulates your appetite. Hence, many restaurants feature red in  their decor to encourage a lingering romantic meal where you will order (and eat) more than you planned—or wanted.

For those of you who work in interior design or use a lot of red in your artwork, do consider the fact that most people cannot be around pure or strong red for a long period of time. It brings too much tension or creates too much stimulation in many people’s bodies. Naturally, red hues that have been diluted with white, black, or a graying quality do not elicit the same physical or emotional reactions as strong, pure reds.

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We want to let you know about two more shop hops that are taking place this week. One is in Ohio and the other is in Iowa. Below we have given you a bit of information about both shop hops.

2011 Jingle Bell Shop Hop fourth annual Quilters’ Fling Event

In Ohio the Jingle Bell Shop Hop is fully active. There are nine participating shops. We think you’ll find many interesting quilting items and projects in your wanderings similar to these shown here.

 This Ohio shop hop extends through Saturday, September 17th. If you want more information, go to www.quiltersfling.com. For those of you who are not familiar with shop hops, here’s a bit of information provided by this shop hop family:

Quilters’ Fling is a group of shop owners who have come together to make quilting and shopping more fun for area quilters while encouraging quilters to check out what participating shops have to offer! We host hops, events and educational opportunities for new and experienced quilters!

Quilt shop hops offer the chance for shoppers to check out shops they may not otherwise frequent due to distance or time constraints. Quilt shop hops take place all across the country (probably the world) and are all handled differently, but our Jingle Bell Shop Hop works like this: Each of the nine shops has been assigned a quilt block as part of a quilt. Each shop has the task of developing a quilt around the central theme, and producing a quilt using all 9 of the assigned blocks.

The participating shops are the following:

A Piece in Time                                 Akron

Bernina Store                                     Twinsburg

Cottonpicker’s Quilt Shop            Chardon, Ohio

JEllen’s House of Fabric                Lyndhurst

Mara’s Fabric & Gifts                      Eastlake

Quilter’s Source                               Parma

The Craft Cupboard                       Middlefield

The Polka Dot Pincushion           Richfield

Tiny Stitches                                    Middlefield

Fall Shop Hop in Northwest Iowa

Another shop hop is taking place in northerwest Iowa where six quilt stores are participating. They, too, will end their event at the end of the day Saturday. We’re sure you’ll find wonderful items.  We find a glimpse of Heart and Hand Dry Goods in Sioux City in the photo image (below). It looks like they have loads of surprises and treats galore.

If you visit all six shops, you have a change to win a grand prize, but we don’t know what that prize is. Additionally, a gift basket with a value in excess of $100 can be won at each shop.  Winning a prize is very nice, but seeing what’s new, fun, and inspiring is really more the point to a shop hop. The participating shops are:

Unique Fabrique                           Le Mars

Heart and Hand Dry Goods      Sioux City

Roelof’s                                             Sioux Center

Inspired by Times                       Storm Lake

Quilting on Main                         Pocahontas

Quilt ‘N Kaboodle                        Cherokee

Have fun participating in either of these shop hops.  We hope you find wonderful surprises to  get your creative juices going. Enjoy!