My Mother's Favorite Colors

This block is dedicated to my wonderful mother who taught me to quilt and continues to encourage and inspire me.  She loves teal and purple.  Many, many, many of her quilts are teal and purple.

I was inspired by a batik that combined these two colors.  I wish more of it showed in the block, but the scale of the print was rather large.  Sometime to think about in the future when choosing fabrics. I then picked various shades to go with it.  I knew there would have to be some contrast, so I purposely chose light and dark turquoise to help bring sparkle to the block.  It's really important to make sure to have enough contrast.  A block that is all medium value fabrics has little sparkle because there is no contrast for the eye to notice.

I also had to be careful with the dark purple fabric on this block.  You can see the lines of dots in it.  I fussy cut these pieces to make sure the dots were all going inwards.  To do this, I placed my fabric on a light box as I was putting down my fusible so that I could see what pattern I was getting.

The following threads were used:

• Outer dark turquoise petals-Glide by Fil-Tec Threads.  I love it's sheen and it continues to be my favorite polyester thread.
• Inner purple petals-Artist Studio Colors by Superior Threads.  This is a polyester thread and it has nice sheen.  It's a little thinner than the Glide and leaves a thinner line.  I like to use it on purpose sometimes when I don't want as thick of a line.
• Light turquoise and little dot-Isacord machine embroidery thread.  It is a similar thickness to the Glide thread, but does not have as much sheen.
• Turquoise and purple print-Sulky Rayon 40 weight.  This thread is thick like the Glide and has almost as much sheen.
• Big dot-Artist Studio Colors by Superior Threads.  This particular color of thread is interesting as it is very gray in tone.  I find it a challenge to use sometimes as I tend to use very bright colors.  However, this particular dot was a little grayer than I normally use and so I decided to try it.  As I was stitching it out, I wasn't sure it was going to be the best choice, but in the end it blended well and lets the other fabrics and threads stand out which is what I wanted.

Love you mom!

Suzy