Sunset at the Beach

My favorite setting in the whole wide world is the beach at sunset. The constant crashing of the waves, the warm breeze on bare skin and that showy blast of sunset colors - no place delights and inspires and simultaneously soothes my soul like it.

We have spotted some glorious sunsets in the last weeks from my bedroom window. Perhaps that’s why I gravitated toward these shades when I stood open to any color scheme a few days ago. I have in mind a light and springy quilt, with just touches of the deep reds and purples. Here I have arranged the colors in somewhat of a sunset scheme with bright yellow bursting at the middle.

You know that I am smitten with the color peach. I like it with everything, thus also with this sunset palette. But then I got the idea to break open a pack of Tilda fat quarters called Tea Towel Basics. These are very low value prints with stripes, dots and checks, all in pastel shades on cream backgrounds. They remind me of soft sandy beaches, sea glass and pebbles.

The washed-out peach shades and Tea Towel Basics will be a lovely foil for my saturated sunset shades. And that’s good, because I have in mind a quilt made up entirely of diamonds, but with lots of contrast. One grid of diamonds will be the sunset shades and the alternating grid of diamonds will be the low volume sandy shades.

Let the cutting begin!

P.S. in my book, The Quilter’s Field Guide to Color, I discuss how to use archetypal images such as “Sunset at the Beach” as color inspiration for your quilts. Check it out to learn more about this and other ways that I work with color. xoxo