This month I'm Feeling Blue . . . a cool, clean, refreshing kind of blue. Blue is all around us if we just take the time to notice. We live on the Blue Planet after all. It's the color of the sea and the sky. In my opinion there's nothing better than seeing it all from the air . . .
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| Our trip to St. Thomas |
These are my Colorado Blues . . . gorgeous blue skies and clear blue mountain lakes.
Distant blue mountain ridges . . .
Cool blue winter skies from my backyard . . .
Dark blue stormy summer skies . . .
And blue twilight skies . . .
I've always loved the evening mountains silhouetted against the Deep Blue twilight sky. It was the inspiration for my final mini art quilt in the Four-in-Art group last year.
Blue is symbolic of water as well as sky. It's cool and refreshing on a hot summer day, bringing back memories of trips to the beach and time spent at the pool.
Blue is often the color of cityscapes as the sky is reflected in the glass of tall buildings.
Blue is also often thought of as a country color. This gate photo was taken on a trip to Taos last year.
Blue can be found in nature. Maybe not so often in flowers but think bluejays like this sweet baby bluejay in our yard . . .
Or how about a quilted bluejay . . .
I don't use a lot of blue in my quilting. I don't even have a lot of blue in my stash . . . not to worry though, I'm working on it. That said, one of my more well known quilts is all blue. Rhythm & Blues was made with a variety of blue solids and won a third place at QuiltCon 2013.
And then there's this blue version of my newest pattern Matrix.
I also have a new concept in the works that uses some beautiful Kaffe Fassett blues.
Blue is not a color I think of in my home. I don't decorate with blue, but the more I looked, the more I found blue here and there around the house. Blue dishes in the form of berries in my collection.
Classic blue and white dishes, some belonging to my grandmother . . .
And blue vases, a small part of my colored vase collection in my studio . . .
While blue is not my favorite color, I wear it almost every single day. For that matter, people all over the world do too. Blue jeans. Denim. I will always associate blue denim with my mother-in-law Ellie. She often wore light blue oxford shirts, jeans and a denim hat. We still have her denim hat. It's a lovely reminder of her casual style. My mother also liked blue, but not in the form of denim. Her style was a bit dressier. More like gray blues or navy suits.
Blue symbolizes heaven, dignity, strength and honesty therefore a common corporate logo color. Dark blue is symbolic of authority and used for police and military uniforms.
We describe Blue with words like baby blue, sky blue, navy blue, midnight blue, electric blue, cyan, cobalt, azure, periwinkle, turquoise, ultramarine, sapphire. These last few are the names of beautiful blue gemstones. My daughter says blue is a very popular color in her jewelry lines. See more at EmilyClaireStudio.
Emily challenged me to find leaf photos for all my color posts and I accepted. So here are my blue leaves . . .
The leaf shapes remind me of this cool blue Chihuly glass at the Denver Botanic Garden exhibit last summer . . .
I'll leave you with this beautiful cloudy blue sky. Pretend you're laying in the grass, staring up at the clouds. Tell me . . . what do you see?
When I started this color series, my intention was to really look for the color in my own personal world. To see the color around me in my house, my environment and my experiences. For that reason I've chosen to use my own photos rather than rely on the abundance of beautiful photos and color schemes available through sites like Pinterest and Design Seeds. These sites are wonderful places for inspiration on color but I want this series to be personal . . . representative of the color I see around me. You can see all my other color stories under the Color Inspiration tab at the top of my blog.
I challenge you to look around your home, your neighborhood, your work and really see the colors in your world.
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