Color Essentials

September 16, 2013
Murphy (Modern Holiday) concentrated on color, specifically of solid cottons, in designing a dozen projects. The book’s title is correct, for she does cover color essentials, turning the color wheel to highlight primary, secondary, and tertiary colors and complementary colors. She also plays with what she calls “poison” colors, hues that scream at each other from opposite sides of the color wheel but “yield dynamic results” when placed together. Although she asserts that piecers who throw off color shackles become creative, she allows that “unlimited possibilities can also be intimidating.” She addresses this issue by teaching about color: hues, values and shades; artist Josef Albers’s contributions; and cottons from Robert Kaufman Fabric, especially the Kona Sunrise and Sunset palettes created for this book. Projects for intermediate or advanced quilters range from small pillows and place mats to full-size quilts, including “Color Burst,” a gorgeous circle measuring 69 ¾ in. in diameter. Each quilt includes a page of color possibilities, and several projects include instructions on smaller topics, such as using fusible appliqué.