Picking my color palette

Now that I have the mechanics of making the flowers pretty well sorted in my mind I want to concentrate some now on colors.  I said last post that I wanted muted colors...This palette on the right  is one of the palettes that comes up when I put "Victorian color palette" in Google. It is basically what I want but some blues and more variety in value.

This palette is getting there.  It has some more intense values and a bluish gray/green.

I love it when color palettes come with a picture.  It give you a much better idea how these colors work together.

This one has more colors in it but somehow doesn't give me any inspiration. They just don't seem to work together for me.









I eventually settled on this palette.  It basically only has 4 colors - red, yellow, green and blue.  But there is a wide variety of values in each color going from dark to light.
I will print this (probably several copies) and keep them near my work to use as a guide when I am choosing or dying materials.

 I did run across a few palettes that I added to my color file for future possibilities.  I find that using a color palette as a guide opens up new color combinations for me and also serves a guide for adding just that extra color that brings other colors to life.

I would have NEVER thought of using orange, red, pink and lime green but it works and I might try it someday.

I love all the pastel shades of turquoise and pink but doubt I would have thought to add the brilliant cerise which just makes all the other colors pop.













I love this palette.  It is in my comfort zone completely.  This palette and the water lily before it are from one of my most favorite color sites....  Design  Seeds.  They have a daily blog with new palettes every day and you can type in anything... autumn, spring, floral, seaside, carnival etc. and a palette comes up.  A great site for inspiration.

My very least favorite palette is jewel tones.  I have only used it once as the challenge option when I made my vest and this was as far out of the box I could get. Although I am happy with the vest but I will   never use this palette again. The colors were too bright and intense and actually made me uncomfortable when working on it even though  I did add black to temper the brightness of it.  I certainly stand out in a crowd when wearing it.

Last BoHo Bag

I meant to post about this bag in 2016 but it was a gift and then I forgot about putting it up... But I even had trouble finding any pictures this morning when I wanted to write about it....

One of my granddaughters had admired my BoHo bag   and I decided to make her one for her graduation in the spring of 2016.  Her favorite color at that time was purple and I wanted it to be fancy but still practical for someone her age.

I chose this pattern because of the extra side pockets but didn't pay that much attention to the shape of the handle and how it was attached.  First mistake.











Second mistake was my choice of materials...I wanted it to be opulent.  I had my heart set on several velvets and satin for the lining... right?  Slip and slide all the way and in addition I chose very heavy structural lace.  So bulk at the seams was a problem all the way also.  It all was so dark that it was hard to photograph.

This is the pocket on the backside.  The lace shows up better in this shot.

But as you can see from this inside shot that with all the bulk, the slippery fabrics, and the curved design of the handle it was definitely a challenge... 

But it was pretty spectacular when finished...most definitely one of a kind.  I might make this bag pattern  again but I would take it to a leather shop and have a leather handle made and sewn on there.

Now for my spider bag I have chosen this pattern called "Quattro bag" and it is readily available on line.I ordered it this morning.    It has similar side pockets but you can see how differently the handles are attached.

This will adapt itself very nicely to BoHo crazy quilting...  The bag itself will be black and embellished in color... I have tons of wonderful black stuff left from the suffragette quilt and I hope to make a dent in that stash.

Also I'm hoping I remember the lessons from the previous bag.