I volunteered at our church thrift shop yesterday for the first time since it opened after closing during COVID-19. They have instituted a whole list of protocols to keep volunteers and customers safe, which I greatly appreciate, but that’s not the story here.

As soon as I walked in, I saw it. A small yellow-orange platter. My dishes are many colors that mix and match and it makes me happy to open the cupboard door and look at all the color choices stacked up. The yellow-orange platter fits right in.

It also happens to be the color that I was trying to use in my new black and white quilt - which I took out last week because the design clearly wasn’t working. It’s the color of the cover of my book and it’s in my logo. I guess I’m just drawn to it – even though I can’t wear it! I do have a light tint of it on my kitchen walls…

For quite a while I have had in mind what I thought was a great idea for my next quilt, and I got it started on my design wall a couple of weeks ago. I’ve worked on it a bit here and there and spent quite a bit of time playing with the fabrics. It’s still not really working, however.

Yellow-orange works well as an accent color and adds a spark to the blue/blue-violet/violet range. Taken in all it’s glory, I think of sunshine and summer and it makes me happy.

That’s why I wanted it in my black and white quilt. Bright yellow-orange makes me happy, and I wanted to create another black and white quilt that makes me smile when I look at it. That’s one of my goals – to smile when I look at the finished quilt.

I’m not smiling, yet, but I have great hopes that I will. I have yet to achieve that goal with this quilt design, but I’m not giving up.

What goals do you have when you make a quilt?

• Have a cozy cover-up for couch movie-watching that goes with your living room colors so you can keep it out for people to see

• Make a grandchild happy

• Celebrate a birth, wedding, birthday, graduation

• Comfort a child ill in a hospital

• Warm a person less fortunate than you

• Raise funds for a church or other non-profit

• Enjoy the process of quiltmaking

• Tell a story

• Reveal your message to the world

• Make a statement quilt

• Try a new technique

• Make your first art quilt – or your twenty-first

• Cover your bed with handmade warmth in colors and a pattern that you love

• Try out a new color scheme

• Be brave and use more patterned fabrics that you are used to

• Make up your own design and pattern

Quiltmaking is so much more than choosing fabrics and a pattern, and then cutting and stitching. We want to make people happy, make ourselves happy, or maybe do the opposite and make people stop and think and call them to action.

What are your goals for your next quilt?

Some helpful resources from elsewhere in the Dynamic Quilting website:

Three things to consider when choosing an inspiration fabric

How to make your quilt your own

The Dynamic Quilting Color and Fabric Plan - Make use of the Plan by starting with your overal goal for the quilt, find an inspiration fabric, and then use the Plan to aid you in choosing the rest of your fabrics.

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