Ribbons of Love - Introduction

Pinch me!  Is this real?  I am so very excited to be offering my very first mystery quilt to all of you amazing people.  I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking this journey with me and allowing me to "test" my creativity.

I have been working on this pattern for about a year now and have tweaked and retweaked it so many times that I'm not sure how much it resembles the original anymore BUT --- I LOVE IT!  My hope is that you will as well.

Before we get into the details, may I share a bit of how this design came about?  First of all -- I am a victim of violence against women.  I don't talk about it much and do not wish to dwell on it here but it does play in the patterns that will evolve in this beautiful quilt.  The white ribbon has become known as a symbol associated with this and the hope that we can someday overcome it and become a better society as a result.  I hold tight to those hopes and dreams.



Please join with me in that dream as we work together building memories, sisterhood, and skills while overcoming fears of all types in this project.  You can do this!  Try something new - new methods, new colors, new beliefs in yourself.  I absolutely cannot wait to see your progress as we move through the clues and create beauty out of chaos.  Stay calm - stay strong!

As you can see --- everything in the previous paragraph emulates how we need to be in all parts of our lives.  Stand strong my friends --- we have a world to change.

NOW ----  Let the fun begin.

A few years ago, I wandered through a gallery in the Bishop Arts District of Dallas, TX when I was stopped short by a wonderful piece of art.  It wasn't what was painted that struck me near as much as the color pallette and I swore right then that I wanted to design a quilt with those colors in it.  I took a picture and somehow didn't save it.  I was heartbroken when I discovered what had happened.  I even returned to the gallery a couple of days later, but the collection had changed.  Dang my luck.  Then, as I was sorting through some scraps of fabric given to me, what do you think I found?  Yep -- a piece of fabric with the EXACT color pallette I had fallen in love with.  The universe was telling me that I should not let this idea fade.  Here is that piece of fabric:

Okay -- let's break it down for you.  I took the lead from Bonnie Hunter and used her wonderful idea of paint cards to help you with this since not all monitors show the same colors.  Mine came from the Behr display at Home Depot.  Drumroll please . . . . . . . . .

What do you think?  Are you jumping up and down, fist-pumping, and saying YES?  Just as an added FYI -- The 2015 Row by Row Experience Shop Hop's (LINK HERE) theme centers around the water and many of those fabrics will play well in this if you plan on participating in it or just want to grab a few.

First up is:

Purples - The card is M570B and includes Cyber Grape, Celeb City, Notorious, and Paparazzi -- kinda funny now as I never looked at the names until typing this.  As I am doing this scrappy, I will use all ranges on the cards, keeping the darkest as just a smattering throughout -- not much at all.   UPDATE:  I would change what I said and use mostly the darkest purples.  You will need 2 yards for the top plus an additional 3/4 yard if you choose to bind in purple as I am going to do.  Here are the fabrics I pulled from stash to use:

Blues - The card is P510B and contains Electra, Perfect Sky, Brilliant Blue, and Beacon Blue.  This time, I have stayed fairly middle of the road with a few on each end of the card.  You will need 2 1/2 yards total.  UPDATE:  I would stay on the medium to light end  -- no really light -- no really dark.  You want a difference between the light blues and the neutrals.  My choices are:

Greens - The card is P420B and has Menthol, Shamrock Green, Exquisite Emerald and Crown Jewel.  What redhead wouldn't love these?  As you can see below, I chose to stay on the right side of the card, with just a few of the darker colors.  UPDATE:  Avoid the darker and really light ones all together.  Stay medium.  You will need 3 yards total.

And last but definitely not least --- Neutrals.  You can do whatever makes you happy here, but I would truly recommend that you choose either tone on tones or SMALL prints.  We don't want anything big and bold here.  I would also say to stick to whites if at all possible.  UPDATE:  The music fabric and the circles is too much.  Stay as much tone on tone as you can.  The creams will work but have them in a smaller proportion than the white and stay on the very light end of cream.  My creams are pictured on the left.  It is a small stack staying on the lighter end of cream.  Nothing dark here at all.  The neutrals play a huge role in this pattern and we want them to stand out.  You will need a total of 4 1/2 yards.  Here are my choices:

All together now ---- Oh how yummy!  This is just wonderful eye candy to me.

Here is a pic of the constant colors I chose:

All yardages include the border(s) and will give us a quilt top that finishes at 88 1/2" x 88 1/2".  The pattern really won't allow for me to cut it down and give other sizes.  I'm sorry and perhaps next time there will be other options.

Well, are you excited now too?  I sure hope so.  I absolutely cannot wait to see your choices.  Please post them in the group and let us all ooohh and aaaahh to our hearts content.  I will create a summary page for this mystery and put a tab at the top of the blog.  Come back often and throughout the duration of the project.  First clue goes live on Saturday, August 29 when kids will be back in school and my house will end it's summer camp sessions.  Until then -- let the countdown begin.

Happy Shopping both in stores and your stash!

Deb