colors and current projects

I find it a bit humerous that I'm getting compliments on how well the colors of my orphan blocks are going together.

I've always been very picky/fussy/paranoid/selective about MY quilting colors. Intense blues, pinks, purples, turquoises, all those analogous colors on the color wheel. Very slowly I've been letting some greens in - true or bluish greens, none of that yellowy stuff. Very recently I've decided that red can sometimes play well with my colors, but again it has to be true red or bluish, nothing orangey.

There will be no metallic at any time (tho a few did slip in when I first started buying - they've since been weeded), esp not that heinous gold. No "neutral" colors, no browns, tans, taupes, bone, ecru or anything vaguely in that region. I completely disagree with those who say that neutrals don't change the color scheme. Yes, they do.

Unless I'm buying for a specific project there will be NO white in my fabrics. I've been known to take a blue or purple permanent marker and get rid of any white highlights.

Sometimes I get reactions like, your quilts need some orange or yellow or complementary color.... Not for me.

So when people say "hey those blocks go together" there is a very good reason. This is a true ME quilt.

Now since 2000, when I began playing with Halloween quilts, yes, I've bought some orange and lime green. And yes, I've now got yellows and some very bright fabrics. But those fabrics only play in my not-my-colors quilts. I made a really fun string star with yellows, oranges, and limes on a red background. Okay, I enjoyed it, but it's not me. And yes, there are some wonky houses started in pinks and bright greens, but those are for happy, spring quilts. Not my quilts, altho they'll go on my walls for a very limited amount of time each year.

So, okay, I'm "growing" and not as limited as I used to be. I spend more money on fabric now, so being limited had its advantages.

On a completely different note, I've finished quilting on my Halloween Faces quilt. Just the binding (boo) left to do. I pin basted the Noel sampler this morning and started quilting it. I first tried quilting around the letters, in the ditch, in white quilting thread, but didn't like how it looked. Took that out and am now circling the border in my favorite fan pattern. What can I say, it makes any quilt look great and it's a very comforting pattern to me for some reason.