What's With All The Green?

As the folded & finished quilts start stacking up, I realize that this year's quilts seem to be all green. Well, green is the focus color with other coordinating fabrics. Always looking for the metaphor in what I do, I researched its meaning and found that green is favored by well-balanced people and is a master healer. It a safe color, and symbolizes money, growth, the desire to change and offers a protection from fear.

I've actually selected holiday green on purpose. When I first decided to make Winter Solstice gifts for members of my immediate family, I realized that I could never begin to match the colors in their homes from more than 2000 miles away. I started making small holiday wall hangings for them and knew that the piece could come down after the season ended. So when my work felt good enough to me to make quilts, these are also made of holiday fabrics

I am working on the binding for Ava's SongBird log cabin quilt. It is green, along with the reds and creams of the season, but really green front and back. 

Its helped in many ways to continue quilting with the same fabrics because those quilts will go to different homes and no one sees that I use the same fabrics. I purchased larger yardage and have used the leftovers in various others. Additionally, I was able to buy a larger spool of thread (3280 yards) to load bobbins and use for the top thread as well. I can use it to join fabric pieces as well as machine quilt. Its simply a matter of conservation of my financial resources.

Next year, the holiday quilts are in various shades of blue. Blue is a calming color, and is used for inspiration, sincerity and is the color of truth, solitude and peace

In one way, using a single focus color on projects for an entire year is like achieving a healthy way of life that requires conscientiously repeating positive actions. 

What started me out like this was the need to separate the fabrics given to me into quilt projects, and I did this by color first. Then, I guess, it was really a matter of financial wisdom, knowing that each of those projects would have leftovers or scraps that could go into yet another quilt. AND THEN also realizing the cost of thread could be minimized through the purchase of larger spools. (I like Gütermann 50 weight cotton thread for piecing and use this brand's quilting thread for hand work.)

I make other quilts throughout the year, often attending classes to learn the methods. When I do this, I will buy the fabric for this quilt that is not made for the holidays. So it is always a learning process, a colorful process, and one of spirit for me.