May - Color Your World - Turquoise

Welcome to May and the beginning of the second third of the year.  Yep, we're already there and loving the change of seasons around us.  The Color Your World fun for this month is Turquoise and is the second and last time we will play outside the book.  We are going to have some fun with turquoise and I absolutely love it.  Further down the post is the monthly project AND your BINGO card for the month.  So, let's get started and - don't forget to grab that cuppa.

Turquoise is the color of calmness and clarity.  It stabilizes emotions and increases empathy and compassion while emitting a cool calming peace and giving us a boost of positive mental energy that improves concentration.  That is a ton of positive, right?  How can there possibly be anything negative associated with this wonderful color?  Well, there were a few listed, but I found them odd.  For example, narcissism.  What?  I'm not sure I follow at all.

Another odd item I read is that "the turquoise - means waters of the Caribbean."

It's a tough color and as I searched for fabrics this month, I wondered - is it teal?  Is it aqua?  Blue-green?  It goes toward green and then toward blue.  Turquoise is such a versatile hybrid that it is flattering on almost every skin tone and hair color.  It leans cool for blondes, warm for brunettes and stark black and then ---- for those like me ----works even for redheads to give a glorious effect.  This does not hold true for other "blend" colors like orange and lavender.

So where did we get this beautiful shade that has more tones than almost any other color on the primary color wheel?  The word itself can be traced back to the 17th century and the source was a mined stone.  There were many trade routes that brought the turquoise stones from Persia through the Middle East and onto Europe.  The path crossed through Turkey ("Turquie" in French) and leaves a strong theory that "Turquies" morphed into the word we use today.

It also falls into the analogy of "Which came first . . . the chicken or the egg?" question.  The same can be said, "Which came first . . .the turquoise stone or the color?"  Using what we learned about Turkey, it's likely that the stone was first.

There are times when I have purchased genuine turquoise jewelry and they are vastly different in color.  Does this mean anything?  Nope.  Like almost every gemstone identified (including diamonds), there are going to be different shades of this stone.  They DO all revolve around a color base of greenish-blue or aqua blue.  Let that be your guide.

Well, armed with all of that you should be ready for this month's table runner.  It is called "Summer Sea Glass" and this is the LINK to the pattern.  This month we are playing with triangles!!!  I've opted to use some the batiks in my tote.  

Fabric selection and start cutting. -

I've used an Equilateral 60 degree Triangle ( NOT the Tri Tool - you can see it pictured below) and 3" strips to cut.  I chose to cut 30 of each of eight fabrics with a light to dark range.

Let the layout begin - 

This is sewn in diagonal strips.

Rough edges once sewn

Trim straight all around, sandwich, and quilt.

Trim, add the binding, and finish it off.  My backing as I work on finishing the binding.

And TA-DONE.  I do love this one.  

Well, all that leaves for this month is the BINGO card.  I almost skipped this one as I'm up in Montana and finding free, creative time has been a challenge.  However, here ya go.  It's also an easy one ---- we're working back to sewing more and more.