June - Color Your World - Blue

 

June has arrived and we are ending out the first half of the year with BLUE.  This year's theme is full of thought provoking information and I'm loving the chance to Color Your World along with everyone else.  Why blue in June?  I really don't have a good reason, except that, for me, June begins our summer season and I associate that with rivers, lakes, and oceans.  Add in some blue sky and I'm ready to just lay and watch the clouds.  Our monthly project is featured here along with a BINGO card for those who wish to play.  I'll also have several BLUE blocks in Pat Sloan's sew-a-long, but she's on a different color, purple and that one is still ahead for us.  Here is June, in all her glory, so enjoy and don't forget that cuppa.

The Secret Lives of Color, by Kassia St. Clair, has a TON of information on blue.  With each block post in Our Quilt World, I share little tidbits of the different variations, but the book is well worth the purchase.  Do it -- you know you want to.  Reading about blue netted me this little gem, "... everyone, even the non-sighted, possesses a special receptor that senses blue light.  This is crucial because it is our response to this portion of the spectrum, naturally present in the highest concentrations in early daylight, which sets our circadian rhythm, the inner clock that helps us sleep at night and remain alert during the day.  One problem is our modern world, filled as it is with spot-lit rooms and backlit smartphones, overloads us with blue light at odd hours of the day, which has negative effects on our sleep patterns.  In 2015 American adults reported getting an average 6.9 hours of sleep on a work night;  150 years ago it was between 8 and 9 hours."  Sit back, process that, and apply it to your own world.  I'm thinking that it means to go enjoy the morning light and put the screens down at night.

Additionally, blue was NOT a popular color throughout history.  However, today is symbolizes trust, loyalty and security.  Just think of the brands that use it for marketing:  Dell, Lowe's, ATT&T, American Express, Hewlett-Packard, Facebook, Intel, NASA, Pfizer and the list goes on and on.  There is a reason for this.  Blue has a calming and relaxing effect on our psyche, that gives us peace and makes us feel confident and secure.  The negative aspect is that it can also be related to depression and passivity.  The positives outweigh this so much that blue is almost always ranked as the "favorite" color in modern times.

It appears in nature more than you realize.  In our food - 

In the water - in fact, an entire movie was made about a blue fish.

In the air above us - ha, ha, got ya, you though I was aiming towards the blue sky - close, but . . .

To our gardens - okay, okay, we've created this one, but it's still gorgeous.

And finally -- to the skies above.  NOW, it's time for that cloud watching.

That brings us to this month's table runner and here is the LINK to a free pattern download.  While working with blue, this month's challenge is a Bargello.  "Challenge,?" you ask.  Yep.  Each month I've tried to test the water a bit.  January was low-volume, February included piecing, March was a bit on the modern side, April was my own drawing, May brought equilateral triangles and now we have a Bargello.  What will the rest of the year have in store?

This runner will finish at approximately 18" x 55" if created as I did.

My first task was to select 9 blues in varying hues to create the pattern and then cut 2 - 2 1/2" WOF strips from each.  This gives me enough for 3 blocks plus inner/outer borders.

My strips are ready to sew in THE CORRECT ORDER.  I have these numbered clips and use the always when working on a Bargello.   Following the directions, sew strips into TWO tubes, leaving inside out.  At this point, we are ready to cut the desired strips for the pattern.  I went ahead a made a cheat sheet for the number of strips I needed to cut in order to make dang sure I had enough fabric (see how I totaled up the inches?)

When it came to the actual cutting, I worked from largest to smallest and then, opened up the small seam on each column, exactly where it needed to be an then, using my clips once again, laid them out according to the pattern.  There are three strips in each clip (one for each block) and the strips across the top are the inner and outer border (sashing???) pieces.

At this point, it's a simple matter of sewing the parts together, making a sandwich and quilting.  In this picture, I have the binding ready to hand-stitch down.

And - it's done.

Love it.

If you've actually read the post all the way to this --- here is June's BINGO card.  I'm loving this guidance each month and it's helping to keep me on track.