The latest craze. Colouring. There's a zillion colouring books floating around out there now. Our kids all got them for Christmas (although I colour in them more that they do). And not to mention the pencil crayons... the kinds and qualities of doodling pencils seem endless. What a fun new hobby, and it's good for you too! Check out this AWESOME article on 7 Reasons To Start Colouring Again ASAP.
There are so many ways that colouring is good for you, as is quilting!
So, I was colouring away in bed last night, and in my normal fashion, picked up one colour I liked, then looked at the page to decide where I would put it. Then after I finished colouring that section, I put the crayon aside. NOT back into the general crayon population, but off on it's own, not to be touched again. Then I picked up another colour, found a home for it on the page, and put that one aside too. I do all of my colouring this way. Each colour I pick up at random is only used once. The result is a glorious fusion of colour. Regardless what shade I picked, they will worked together to create a masterpiece.
So how can colouring make you a better quilter? Thought you'd never ask!
In my mystery quilt club, The Prairie Quilt Militia, I teach how to select fabrics in a similar way. I pay little attention to the colour itself, rather the VARIETY of colour is most important. I love scrappy quilts, and one by one, my matchy-matchy members are being converted over to the scrappy side, but just learning to LET GO, and let the fabrics and colours dance together, naturally.
So what can you do to help you along the scrappy road? The next time you pick up your colouring book and crayons, do this: Close your eyes. Pick a crayon. Open your eyes and colour something on the page with it. Anything. Don't take too long to decide, just get that colour on the page! Then set it aside. Don't go back to it. Close your eyes and select a new colour. You'll see a coloured paradise when you're done.
Try this with your fabrics the next time you want to take a dive into scrappy. Randomly select patches to stitch together, I think you will be so pleasantly surprised and delighted at the result! If you're still nervous about it, then try a few more colouring sheets to drum up the courage. What have you got to lose? It's a great way to practice "scrappy". It's just a sheet of paper :-)
Now back to my colouring...