Internal Consistency–Teacups and Quilts

June 16, 2016
Tea Cup Quilt, Machine Quilting, Lori Kennedy

Tea Cup Quilt, Machine Quilting, Lori Kennedy

Good Morning, Quilters!

I laughed out loud this morning as I poured myself a cup of coffee in my favorite tea-cup and prepared to photograph my quilt…

Tea Cup Quilt, Machine Quilting, Lori Kennedy

Did my favorite tea-cup influence me as I chose the fabrics for this quilt?

Or is it an example of internal consistency--we have favorite colors and designs that resonate with us?

LOLOL–I just noticed that I am wearing a sweater in this same shade of green!

Tea Cup Quilt, Machine Quilting, Lori Kennedy

THE GREEN TEA CUP QUILT

This little quilt was made from an orphan block.

I kept the quilting in the center very simple–quilting on very patterned fabric does not show as much…

I added Grid Pop in the corners and Double Loop Vine and Straight Line Quilting in the border.

I did not quilt the light green border so it would stand out or “pop”.  (The areas with less quilting are more noticeable.)

Tea Cup Quilt, Machine Quilting, Lori Kennedy

What about YOU?  Do you exhibit internal consistency?  Are your quilts, clothes, teacups, flowers the same color?

We’d LOVE to hear!

Happy Colorful Quilting!

Lori-(who drinks coffee out of a tea-cup)

PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt and are intended for personal use only.  Feel free to re-blog, pin or share with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt.  For all other purposes, please contact me at lckennedy@hotmail.com.  Thanks!

 

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66 comments

  • kaholly

    Oh, my goodness, this little piece is gorgeous!

  • Dorothy

    Lime green does it for me every time. The little quilt is so fresh and beautiful Lori.
    It goes to show that inspiration comes from everywhere.
    Your quilting choice is perfect.

  • alisonmthomsen

    I love the season of Autumn, I love the colours that surround our farm and garden. I had an Autumn coloured coffee mug that I matched the kitchen paints to, my dogs are all Autumn coloured, I have gold silkies because they match the garden, my quilts all tend to be Autumn colours, Halloween fits my criteria for colour and only just now am I making an extreme effort to move away from this colour palette, hard as it feels.

  • Pam Hotle

    I love your sweet little quilt!
    Green is my favorite color but I don’t often wear it. My eyes switch from blue to green depending on what I wear. When I wear blue they are green; since that’s my favorite color that’s what I go with.

  • I definitely have an internal consistency when it comes to colour, but I didn’t notice it until I began quilting and I admired others quilts. I tend to go for the smokey shades of blue and grey, but I admire the clear blue quilts. I must broaden my horizons.

  • Thank you for your quilt it’s really a beautiful work of art and a great way to use up scraps ophelia

  • I wear a lot of red and use red as a neutral is so many of my quilts. LOVE red.
    But so many colors make me happy and since I am a huge scrappy fan I mix’em up all kinds of ways. Thanks for this bit of inspiration :0) what an adorable quilt!
    Happy Sewing

    • WordPress.com Support

      I love red! It’s my favorite color!

  • Cathy W.

    I love your little green quilt. I thought I gravitated to blues and greens but, lately I’m like the little bee going to every color in the flower garden. Just when I think I got every color in the rainbow with a variety of shades I then start to work on browns & blacks together. Color makes me happy.

    • WordPress.com Support

      Color makes me happy too!

  • I love bright colors, what I call “crayon colors.” The green you used is one of my favorites, though I would never wear it. Funny the way the colors I use for quilting may not be elsewhere in my life.

  • Rebecca Shaffer

    Green and purple have been my favorites lately.It used to be pink. Who knows what it’ll be next. I love your little quilt!

  • I love that color combo! I find that I wear a lot of blue and green and they show up regularly in my quilting but the one color that almost all ways shows up in my quilts is a touch of gold. It’s usually not the main color or even one that I like to wear but I find it makes the cool colors that I am most attracted too really shine.

  • Thank you, Lori, for the blog idea, and also for showing me how I can FMQ a block. I love the FMQ tutorials and doodling on solids, but it’s helpful to see how you would quilt the different block shapes too. Love it, love it! I’m a red/green/blue gal though I’m getting into the modern quilt colors these days. Bright is more cheerful, but I just adore the traditional blocks. It kind of fools people to use bright or modern fabrics with a traditional design.

  • Blue! almost always blue. I have noticed, however, that lime green really perks up any project in blue and my other favorite, pink. Love the brights but find the homey browns to be very comforting in the home.

  • Karen Poling

    Until this year I seem to have stuck pretty much to blues and purples, but my goal for the year is to try colors I would never have chosen before. So far I am way out of my old pattern. I am using yellow, orange, red, and whatever else comes along. Doing quilt-alongs is inspiring me to try more colors, styles, and prints.

  • Tammy

    I tend to shop for the color I am wearing. I have also noticed this with customers at the quilt shop I work in. It doesn’t always happen, but it’s noticeable when it does.

  • Marianne Rooks

    Oh, Lori! That is the most beautiful quilt I’ve ever seen! I love it’s colors, especially my favorite one – green. It offers the perfect background for your focus fabrics and your exquisite quilting. Your work is an inspiration. Thank you!

  • I’m a black, white, & red girl!

  • Julie Zeigler

    I am always going for purple and green color combinations for me personally. I try to match projects for other people to their preferences!

  • Mary B

    I don’t tend to lean towards any particular colors. But, my sister (who lives across the country from me) and I seem to pick the same colors and fabrics at the same time. No, we’re not twins. And, we don’t discuss what we’re doing. It just seems to happen. LOL!!!

    • A

      My two sisters in law-once bought the same coat–in different cities in the same week–without knowing!

      • Mary B

        We’ve also bought the same couches, same wrist watches, and same placemats.

  • How funny. I have that same cup and its three sister cups! I have taken that cup to quilting class and used it to show unlikely colors that really do go together. Love that you love this cup too and have been so influenced by it.

    • A

      Not sure which came first–I liked the color combination and bought the teacup or I bought the teacup and it influenced by quilt colors??

  • Carolina

    How soothing and cheerful! Lime green just makes me smile. It looks especially good with purple.
    Lime green has been my favorite color for about 3 years, not only in quilt fabric, (large or small accents), but in many things. Things that I have with lime green- a fleece jacket, a sparkly scarf, greeting card envelopes, terry kitchen towels, silk shantung waiting to be made into a pillow, paper napkins, dinnerware mixed in with my Fiesta-like dishes, large outdoor flower pots, a rolling sewing tote (for sewing machine and supplies), index cards, notebook paper, a hydrangea that hasn’t bloomed this year, etc. I don’t think I have any lime green flowers, now that I think about it. I love most all other colors and combinations too-As I’m sure most quilters do.
    Beautiful mat and teacup. Pure artistry, Lori.

    • My friend Joan plants bright-colored annuals in planter boxes on her deck. She always includes lime green sweet potato vines which are a lovely complement. I agree that lime green and purples (to hot pinks) are a great color combo.

    • A

      I love lime green too! I wish I had some lime green silk….hmmm–a shopping we will go!

  • I love blue, too, as some of you do. But my color choices seem to gravitate to analagous – colors next to each other on the color wheel. I like those little differences and they still hang together.
    Also, I’m with Aftermath – make a table runner if you aren’t sure and if you don’t like it you don’t have to finish a large quilt and you can give it to someone else!

  • Amy Roth

    THAT is a lovely, lovely little quilt! I have to make an “orphan block” so just I can make a little quilt like this!

    • A

      Seriously??? YOU don’t have any orphan blocks??? YOU are amazing!!

      • June Neigum

        I was thinking the same thing. I have a lot. I can share.

        • WordPress.com Support

          Welcome back June!!!

  • Your little quilt is wonderful! I do find that I tend towards blues and greens for many of my fabrics – quilt design to be decided on at a later date of course….. Sometimes I’ll get a red color but in looking at various piles of “inspiration” fabrics, that color is in the minority.
    Is there a way to get your pattern and quilt designs?

    • A

      I could make a little pattern for it–yes!

      • That would be great. Love all the different quilting designs you used in this one.

  • Marta

    How very lovely! Adds to the enjoyment of coffee! over time I have discovered my roots in my old family photographs.. Patterns in dresses my mom wore, wall paper in my grandmother’s bedroom, designs in the knots of the old pine paneling, greeting cards saved from my childhood birthdays. Wow, have I been influenced by those originally seen colors and designs ! Invariably I buy fabric in my favorite colors even for charity quilts. After I realized what I was doing, I made myself go out of the “proverbial comfort zone” and use colors I don’t like but are good together. They are fun to give away!!! Would be interesting to see a family tree of favorite colors.

  • That little quilt is so pretty, bright and cheerful.
    Thanks for sharing!

  • Betty

    Love it! Also like the part about drinking coffee out of a teacup!

  • Ingrid

    I think that your tea cup and mat are very pretty. I too believe we gravitate to specific colours and shapes. I’m not a green liking person, always have a difficult time choosing it…but like I said above I think it is very pretty. Orange is my favourite colour, but I don’t wear it or have much of it in my house. My quilts are usually very colourful as are my clothes, but my husband is quite conservative and for him blue everthing, therefore I tend to tone it down but…when we retire in our final house he is in for a big surprise as I’m not going to hold back.lol

  • oh my gosh, this is gorgeous. Best teacup mug rug I’ve ever seen. Total #CreativeGoodness.

    QuiltShopGal
    http://www.quiltshopgal.com

  • Lori, that is so darling! Yes, I think we are influenced even when we aren’t actively thinking about it. I almost never have anything without blue in it 🙂

  • Anna Huffman

    I was at a quilt retreat a couple of weeks ago, and every one of us was wearing colors similar to the project we were working on. There were ten of us!

  • Mary S

    That is also my favorite hue of green

  • Love the colors and your quilting is amazing!

  • I’m into pastels right now, pinks, teals, blues and green. Love this little mat.

    No to change your subject, but wanted to let you know I have stayed on your up and attem attitude. I have now lost 15 lbs. and still going. Thank you for starting this and sharing with us.

  • Roxanne

    I love green so you’ve got me!

  • AnnaMarie

    I love everything about this quilt. I believe in that internal consistency. So often, I pick up an item of clothing just because I like it and then come home to find that it works with many other items in my closet bought over a number of years.

  • Aftermath Quilting

    For a long while my colors were black, white, and red. I made myself stop!
    I’ve been making quite a few table runners. Good opportunity to try something new, either piecing or quilting design. Not a lot of time or money invested and I use them as gifts or charity auction donations.

  • Karen Falvey

    What a sweet fresh way to start the day. Thanks for giving a name to it: internal consistency. I was looking for a quilt back recently for a small solid color block quilt top I had assembled for a free-motion quilting class our guild was sponsoring. Rather than use the black sashed bright colored example they suggested, I chose some very old light green and blue solids from my stash, added a couple of new yarn dyed organic turqouises and an old lime green and thought it would be a nice baby quilt. So looking for a back to fuse to the assembled top, 35 x 45, I found not one but about 6 fabrics that would work beautifully. I like scrappy and after only 20 years collecting, I am regularly amazed at how I can shop my stash for the perfect combination of 10, 20 40 fabrics.

  • Kaylene N

    I use a lot of reds in my quilting. It is my favorite color & my closet looks about the same, lots of reds too. You can drink coffee out of any cup that makes you feel good.
    You enjoy your day & I love this little quilted project you shared today…

  • LOL It’s lovely! My cups and quilts usually match what I’m wearing too as I’m almost always in PINK! Can’t help it I’m drawn to it and it’s funny because I really love other colours but somehow pink always finds its way in. I love the quilting on the border it looks very elegant ?

  • Sue G.

    Green with envy :). Love your little quilt. You inspire me.

  • Gertrude

    Lori, I love this! I was trying to come up with some ideas as to how to use practice blocks and you’ve given me another idea – I’m going to make some mug rugs. My internal colours (at the moment) are purple and teal. My husband encourages me to pick other colours as well.

    • Gertrude

      Ps. I love the little block. Love the colours and love the quilting. Makes me eager to try it this afternoon.

  • jcintx65

    So funny you just defined me/my tastes with this post!! An ah-ha moment for me. I’m guilty of collecting a variety of small mugs–colorful, patterned & whimsical. My favorite, finished quilts meet the same criteria. I have a really hard time (ie., have many early quilting days UFOs) finishing traditional quilts. Guess that was part of discovering my quilting personality. Must have bright colors!!

  • Vicki Mooren

    Green is my favorite color so I tend to put a lot of green in my quilts. My husband always tell me to try some other colors for a change.

    • It seems that I am an “orange” person. Maybe it brightens up my grey-hair look, but I always gravitate to the peach/orange/coral colors. Currently working on a coral /grey / turquoise quilt!

  • I put blue in almost everything…. If there is no blue in it, I showed remarkable restraint.

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