Pantone released it's color for the new year: Radiant Orchid. Read more here.

Here's a quote from the Pantone site:

“While the 2013 color of the year, PANTONE 17-5641 Emerald, served as a symbol of growth, renewal and prosperity, Radiant Orchid reaches across the color wheel to intrigue the eye and spark the imagination,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “An invitation to innovation, Radiant Orchid encourages expanded creativity and originality, which is increasingly valued in today’s society.”

“An enchanting harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones, Radiant Orchid inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love and health. It is a captivating purple, one that draws you in with its beguiling charm.”

If you like purple, this may be your year, but I'm not persuaded that this is my color of the year. As it turns out, the choice of emerald last year didn't do much for me either. Have you noticed a lot of emerald out there in the real world? I have not. And I haven't used much, if any, emerald in my quilts. However, I would like to find a little bit of this purple in fabric… it's a hard color to find much of.

In related Pantone color news, my son, Chris, told me about @everycolorbot on twitter. If you follow @everycolorbot you will be tweeted a random Pantone color every hour. If for no other reason than it makes scanning through your tweets prettier, it's worth following. (As you can see from my phone's screenshot, I don't follow a huge number of folks on twitter.)

This post is really about bleeding fabric, but to get to that part of the story I have to start with the iron. My cheap Sunbeam iron began spitting brown stuff before Christmas so I had to buy yet another iron.

If I had $1000+ to throw at an iron, I’d get a Laura Star ironing system. (You know it’s going to be expensive if it’s a ‘system’.) Instead I bought a Rowenta Pro Iron Steam Station. The base is the water reservoir. It wasn’t cheap, but it also wasn’t $1000.

I read the reviews on this iron and many said that it was prone to spitting water. It is. But once it quits spitting, it puts out a huge amount of steam. My solution is to leave a folded towel next to the iron and every time I pick it up, I first let it spit on the towel. So far that’s working for me. FYI: I can go several hours before I have to refill the reservoir.

I started work 2 days ago on the last quilt top for the color book. This one features light prints in a rainbow of colors…

With the top made (it’s way cute!), I decided to piece a square of each fabric that I used to make the quilt back. I pressed as I sewed. My iron did some spitting and, in a few areas, the fabric got wet. I was absolutely stunned when a fabric with red dots bled! And later, even more stunned when a smaller red dot did the same thing!

I prewash all my fabric. This should not have happened, but it did. I replaced both fabrics—on the quilt top, and on the back. I was mildly annoyed at first but then I realized how lucky I was to have found this out when it was still easy to fix.

The dragonfly fabric you see in the quilt back (below, 2nd row) replaced the larger red dot. I used a different small red dot to replace the small red dot that bled.

I wish I knew why that fabric bled. I wish I knew what other quilts those two fabrics are in! But for me it is yet another reminder to wash very carefully. With color catchers, or synthrapol and/or retayne.

And, because I like the photo, here’s a shot of the scraps from the quilt top:

I am working on a pieced quilt based on a triadic color scheme of red, blue and yellow (the primary colors) for the color book. Red is the dominant color in this quilt, with blue and yellow accents. My first attempt (last week) produced blocks that were not what I expected. Even Steve agreed that the test blocks did not look friendly. They weren't exactly bad, but they were not going to work in the book. What to do?

I slept on it and woke up New Year's day ready to begin again. I wish I could show you the blocks—both bad and good—but I can't. They will be in the book. I can show you the pile of scraps from both quilts…

The oldest scraps are on the right. The darkest reds and the truer blues did not make it into the new quilt. I replaced them with red prints that are more active and blues that lean to aqua.

The idea of 'primary colors' makes me think of crayons, little kids, and clowns. The pile of scraps reminds me of all these things but amazingly enough, the quilt does not. It is much quieter than you'd think, and it is very friendly!

In other news, Steve has been helping me with the quilts for this book too. He has been sewing down bindings (there will be more of that) and he's been basting quilts!

I have one more quilt top to make and then the machine quilting will begin—maybe next week!

We have been waiting on a box of books that was shipped December 16. It should have been here on 12/20. Since we were iced in for days I was not surprised that the delivery was delayed, BUT UPS has delivered several boxes that were ordered well after that—some were ordered after Christmas!

The box of books seems to be stuck in a black hole at the UPS facility here in Sherman. Seriously—have you ever seen a delivery notification like this:

As we have tracked it, the box has been 'out for delivery' and then mysteriously it is not out for delivery, but back at the facility. (Where it says 'destination scan' above, it read 'out for delivery' when we were tracking it online.)

Steve and Christopher both have been to 'the facility' to try to get the box. No luck. What a mess. I almost feel sorry for UPS. That said, I would really like to see the box on my porch!

Christmas, while amazing and wonderful, can also be stressful. There is all of the anticipation that you will have loads of fun and togetherness with family you may not see often and then—there everyone is. I hope that all of you were as lucky as we were. We did, in fact, enjoy our time together! That was the very best present of all.

I do not have photos of us enjoying our time together because I consciously did not pick up my camera, except to take a video of Bear on is new scooter. (I hope this link takes you to the right place on instagram.) Jeff gave him this present and, even though he isn’t quite walking, he can make it go! Steering is still a mystery to him, but won’t be for long.

Jeff is here for a couple more days and I am very much enjoying the time with him. We are going to NYC in mid-January so when they leave, I won’t be as sad as I would otherwise be.

I contracted with a photographer (Lauren Pinson, find her here) to take family photos while everyone was in town. She arrived yesterday morning at 9:00 and she managed to fit every grouping that I had requested into a two-hour shoot. There were group shots of all of us (Steve and me, our kids, their spouses and kids, my mom), and of various ones of us in smaller groups, and of Lorna and her parents, her brother and his wife—plus the grandkids. Lauren suggested a shot of the grandkids with both sets of grandparents which was a great idea! I can’t wait to see the photos :-).

I’m sharing this because Lauren is primarily a wedding photographer. If you haven’t worked with a wedding photographer since back in the day, you should know that things have changed. You pay a photography fee and for that you receive digital copies of the photos. It is so much better than having to go through proofs, trying to decide which ones you are really going to want for th long run, and then ordering prints of them. With the digital images you can print what you want to, when you want to. What works for weddings, also works for family photos. 

In other news, Lorna’s parents are moving from their house of many years in Bonham, TX, to Sherman. Steve and Chris and Michael, Lorna’s brother, have moved a lot of stuff already. The final day of moving is tomorrow. I’m on for helping to unpack in the new space. It’s going to be nice to have Judy and Kelly close—especially for the kids. Our communal grandchildren love us all and I can happily say that we are not competitive grandparents. 

I’m going to spend the rest of today sewing. I have been making progress and hope to be able so show little bits soon!

Many of us have had (and will be having) personal experience with winter scenes like this…

(Thanks to George for sharing the link with me!)

I've said it before and I will say it again: Falling down is BAD! Don't do it!

Tomorrow, Saturday 12/21 marks the winter solstice. Steve and I are celebrating the day with friends—food, drink, and a polar bear plunge. Well… some will plunge. I am going to watch and appreciate their bravery. Steve says the water really isn't that bad but I'm pretty sure that I won't be jumping in until June :-). But no matter what, no one is going to bounce off of our water!

I am going to sew, sew, sew today. My hope is to have three quilt tops made by January 1. That may not happen, but at least I have a plan!