Swooning in Tuscany

I have often looked to photos I've taken for color inspiration. I did it with this Shimmer quilt, and I did it with this Swoon 16 quilt I finished up a few months ago as well. I love doing this, because it usually yields a color scheme I wouldn't have thought of otherwise, and it imbues a quilt with memories and meaning. My Swoon 16 quilt was based on colors from Tuscany. We visited Tuscany in May 2015 in celebration of our ten year anniversary and it was beautiful. The colors didn't translate precisely into this quilt, but I love how it turned out.

I also tried using a non-white background with this quilt, which is pretty far out of my comfort zone. I've used gray as a background before, but never a color like this. I was afraid of going too bold, since my colors are pastel-y, but I'm afraid I might not have gone bold enough. Still, I'm glad I tried it. I think it's important to stretch our creative muscles.

I also used some very cherished prints, including a yellow floralish one by Sweetwater and a coral floral from Kate Spain, among others. I'm glad to have them in a quilt to love and out of my stash before they stop being favorites...and now I have a few precious scraps to play with as well.