Happy Wednesday StitchyMites, wherever you are! I often wonder where you are all when you read your weekly burble from me. Do you sit in a comfy chair with a cup of tea, and take a moment for yourself? Do you read it on your phone, while you’re waiting to pick the kids up from soccer? Or on your work computer? On your iPad, sitting up in bed with your glasses on the end of your nose? Pop where you are in the comments, I’d love to know!
Yesterday I taught a lovely class in Mittagong, which is about 2 hours from home, for the Southern Highland Quilters. The Southern Highlands is an area of NSW around 80 mins from the city centre. I actually spent a lot of my childhood there, so I know it very well. It’s a beautiful place that reminds me a lot of England - lots of rolling hills and farmland, horses and cows. Except that the hills are more often brown than lush green, and dotted with gum trees :) There are some cute little towns but Bowral is the main one - when I was a kid it was a country town but these days it’s full of swish shops, antiquing and fantastic cafes. If you’re ever looking for somewhere to visit from Sydney (or Canberra!), its a great option.
The class yesterday was in my Tiny Town quilt - if you’ve been a StitchyMite since day one, then you know it well! There were quite a few very new quilters in the group so it was a good solid project for them - easy EPP, nice sharp returned appliqué edges (due to the EPP houses and my Perfect Circles technique!), and we all learned how hide our stitches and glue the papers in.
In every class I teach, there is always (ALWAYS, without fail), at least one person who says to me, “I’m not good with colour” and yesterday was no exception! I used to always be quite stumped on what to say when someone said that, because it really isn’t true. These days I just say so! It’s NOT true. Everyone is “good with colour” - but not everyone has colour CONFIDENCE and that is a very different thing.
Yes, some people have a talent with colours and shade, I flatter myself that its one of my talents. I haven’t ever had hesitation in that department. But I do think that a lot of people have decided that they aren’t any good (or worse, been told that they aren’t), and that holds them back with being decisive about what they like.
In the end really, thats what being “good with colour” is all about - knowing what you like, what gives you pleasure to look at - and then not being afraid to implement it. I said in my design posts a few weeks back that I didn’t know how to lecture about using colours, and I don’t really, mainly because I think things like colour wheels and formulas are a load of tripe. But yesterday’s conversation and today’s musings for this post have made me think that perhaps there’s a way to help people unlock their indecision that isn’t some kind of hard and fast RULE.
Shall I set you some homework in the coming weeks? It won’t start until probably mid-April, because I have to get through Tula’s visit (she will be here next week! Woot woot!), and when she leaves I have to have some surgery that has a bit of a recovery period. After that though - maybe some colour exercises, some little ways to play with colour and see if you enjoy the ride. What do you think?
In the meantime, if seeing Tiny Town again has made you long to make rows and rows of little housies and trees, here is a discount code for 10% off the printed pattern and templates, valid until next Tuesday, March 19 at 5pm Sydney time - just enter TINYTOWN at checkout.
Happy sewing peeps
Sarah xx
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