September Color Your World - Orange

 

I'm a northern girl.  Yep, I live in Texas, but the northern girl comes out every now and then.  Fall is one of those times and, for me, fall starts in September.  I LOVE the colors, the feel of the air, even the mood of everyone around.  It's harvest time and the abundance is real in so many ways.  So, as you can see, it makes perfect sense for the Color Your World color of the month to be orange.  As a redhead, I've always been drawn to the earthy tones and this one just makes my heart happy.  Further down in this post is the monthly project and you BINGO card for September.  Grab that cuppa and let's get started.

Orange is the color of enthusiasm and emotion.  It exudes warmth and joy and is considered a fun color that provides emotional strength.  It is optimistic and uplifting, adds spontaneity and positivity to life and it encourages social communication and creativity.  A few negative aspects are associated with it as well so it's not all warm fuzzies.  I can relate to a couple of these as well - impatient (kinda), domination (well, I AM competitive), superficial (nope - ya get what ya get with me and my face is easy to read), and exhibitionism (hmmm -- not sure here.  Are we talking naughy bits?  Then, no.)

There are times when orange is soooo close to it's bordering colors of red and yellow and even brown.  I had to bounce around fabric bins to decide if I was sorting correctly.

What do YOU associate with orange?  We'll go into some of the colors more deeply in our Secret Lives of Color churn dash block quilt and one of them is Amber.  Isn't this just lovely?  I am lucky enough to have a beautiful necklace/earrings set of amber.

Think Wizard of Oz and the poppy fields.

Or the beauty and the fear of a fire.  Perfect example of opposites at play.

What else can we learn?  How about which came first?  The fruit or the word?  According to Kassia St. Clair in The Secret Lives of Color, ". . . need wonder no longer. The fruit was probably first cultivated in China, and then gradually spread west. . . One of the word's first-recorded adjectival outings was in 1502, when Elizabeth of York bought 'slevys of orenge color sarsenet' for Margaret Tudor."

What else do we associate with orange?  Since it is friendly, cheerful and means confidence, many companies have embraced that.  Look at Nickelodeon, Hooters (perhaps that exhibitionism plays here), Amazon, Fanta, Crush, Harley Davidson,  even the Texas Longhorns.  Just seeing if you are paying attention here.  

Orange is all around us and we don't even see it as it's so much a part of our world.  Think about it.  It's even used to draw our attention to danger -- traffic cones, prison uniforms, threat-level number 2.

Perhaps on of my most favorite times that we are blessed with orange is during sunset.  It's just so glorious.

With that, here is this month's table runner.  It is Ombre Quilt-As-You-Go and here is your LINK.  I didn't use actual ombre fabric in mine, but I think you could if there are enough variations in it.  Here are my choices:

Time to cut the strips - 

Since it's a QAYG - backing and batting should be cut now too.  This makes me feel good as I seem to do this anyway.

Let's get going and see how long this takes to make.  First thing is to find the center of your backing/batting and place one of your darkest strips right on it.  Lay one of the next strips right on top and roll the ends so that they won't interfere with sewing.  I have another 2nd darkest strip to go so I don't have to leave the machine.  I've also taken the time to draw my seam line on the strips so that I can attempt to have straight lines.

(psst, picture is upside down)  I've also opened to show you the bottom piece from the side I'm not sewing down.

Sew through the sandwich and the press add the second strip to the other side of the darkest strip and continue this process through your strips.  When you hit the lightest ones, just start working your way back to dark again.

Trim it all up.  Notice how uneven my strips turned out.  It's all good.  There is plenty of wiggle room, just keep an eye on them while you sew so that you don't fall off the other side and lose your batting/backing.  Mine got pretty close a couple of times.

Next is binding.

And to show that you can do this quick, try a new technique (either QAYG or Machine Stitching the binding down), and get your sew with orange and make it show.

AND just to show that I'm a ROOKIE and have never machine sewn the binding down, I started on the wrong side and couldn't figure out why I was missing the binding on the front.  Slap forehead moment.

Flipped the whole thing over and it went lickety split.  I still prefer the look of hand-stitching the binding down, but I did it.  Is it straight?  Nope, but it is on there.  Total time on this (I was already cut) today was maybe 3 1/2 hours.  I had to stop and do other things throughout the process but I guarantee it went quick.  Oh, IF you're working on the BINGO card, this sweetheart could get you 7 boxes.  I think.

TA-DONE

Well now --- we've come to this month's BINGO card.  Have you achieved a blackout yet?  I've been adding charms to retreat tags for those who have.  Only 4 more months left and then it's TA-DONE.  Enjoy September!!!