Colors in the rain

Two funerals in two weeks. My life has not had any room for creativity, just survival. Today is the coldest, rainiest day we've had in a long time. But when I looked out the front window, there was a beautiful color combination laid out in front of me. The grass next to the house is a bright kelly green, then a slash of the silver grey of the driveway; above this a mottled brown-gold of the fall meadow with its mix of plants and bushes. Finally, topping it all, that marvelous orange rust color of ripe soybeans in the field, a color I love. The rain made it all more intense. I bet you haven't heard anyone rhapsodize on the color of soybeans in the fall, but I could. The tableau was a gift to me on an otherwise drab, low-energy day.

One of my favorite quilt tops is one I made with solids in the center in a Churn Dash block, using orange as the background color. It's a signature piece for me. (I need to get it quilted.) I used a colorful batik that kind of had a lot of bubblegum colors in it, but it worked with the center. I call it Exploded Amish style.

Orange is my signature color. My friends from quilt club tease me and compliment my unique sense of combining color. I don't necessarily like things to match exactly. I never buy a whole group of fabrics from a line to make a quilt with. I believe that color is a language that we use to express our individual personalities. I love the nuances that can be seen in different color combinations and the ways that colors can change depending on what's in the mix. In a way, that's also true of the dynamics between people.

Enough musing, I need to go bathe myself in color in my sewing room and see if I can make any sense of things.