Maybe it comes from my days of sourcing fabric and working for apparel design companies, but I get so excited about color cards of any kind. I have loved and used my Kona solid cotton color card faithfully for a couple years now, and heard recently that they introduced 28 new colors. I must update! I ordered a new color card that now has all 243 solid colors they carry. (I got mine at Pink Chalk Fabrics.)
Why have a color card? Well, its really helpful when pulling together fabrics for a quilt or other sewing project, and quickly see what solids are working with your stash. It has actually been pulled out for painting inspiration as well. It also makes it easier to order fabric online, knowing exactly what the color will look like when I get it (our local quilt shops have great selections of prints, but none carry all colors of the Kona solid range). Right now, I have this out to decide on the binding for the fractured circles quilt I am finishing (a few of the blocks I showed in this post). I designed the layout and picked the colors of this quilt to be somewhat quiet; it will, after all, be covering a bed, which is visually a large part of any bedroom. Now that I am down to the backing and binding though, it might be nice to play with the binding color a little. I think I may do a contrast flange as well. There is a great tutorial for how to do a binding flange at Jaybird Quilts. I saw this done on Katie's "Opposing Triangles" quilt, with a light blue flange against the stone shade of the binding and the quilt ground. It was lovely.
Today, I leave you with a link sent by my niece Cate, finder of all things exceptionally cool. A Parisian apartment that was closed, completely untouched for 70 years, and then opened again. You really have to see it to believe it. I mean... love letters wrapped in ribbon and a taxidermied Ostrich!
