Color

In December when I participated in the SMS Giveaway Day(s), I asked people to tell me their most and least favorite colors to stash.  I found the results very interesting.  I stated that I have a ton of yellows, reds, and blues (especially aqua) and that my stash is smallest in orange and purple (most of my purple was given to me or bought for Emma!).  Funny enough I love orange, but don't seem to buy much of it.  And I'm on-again-off-again with green, black and brown.

The results somewhat surprised me and made me think about buying fabric in a new way.  Actually I thought it would be fun to do more research on this topic and then compile some sort of report for fabric houses to know what we're looking for.  Of course I'm sure they already employ someone who does that but if not...Moda, Art Gallery, Robert Kaufman, Michael Miller...I'm available!

I had 486 comments, many which were duplicate entries (the I follow you! sort), so nearly 250 were actual comments about color.  And the overall winner of favorite color to buy/stash was blue with a total of 62 votes.  But not only that--aqua itself was named 25 times.  Seems I'm not alone in my love for that bright color.  :)

That little pile on the top left is flannels and multicolored fabrics that I couldn't figure out where to put.  :)  And see, I told you I loved me some blue and aqua!

Second place went to green (with lime mentioned multiple times) with a total of 47 votes.  Then pink with 32, red with 21, gray with 17, orange and purple tied at 16, yellow had 11 and brown was the last mentioned with 5.

I was surprised by these findings.  I mean I see I'm not alone in leaning towards certain colors, but aqua as it's own subgroup had more likings than red, gray, orange, purple, etc.  And pink was more than all of those!    I love pink but never even thought about it when describing my own fabric stash.

And honestly, I was surprised that blue and green were the top picks.  I don't know why, really, but I just never really think of green.  Toni and I were talking on IG the other day about this.  She said she had more green fabrics than anything else.  I found that a lot of people said that when commenting.  Their blue or green stashes far outweighed everything else.

As far as dislikes/least stash Purple was the hands down winner (or loser...).  It seems we are quite divided on purple.  Twelve people mentioned it as their least favorite.  Orange had 7 votes with red at 6, yellow at 4 and brown, green, pink and aqua each getting mentioned twice as well.

Please excuse the Quaker Oatmeal Man in the middle of my stash.  He's actually holding on to old  EPP projects of my Great Grandmothers AND supporting the middle of that shelf so my top shelf of pre-cuts doesn't sag.  :)

This showed me that I'm not alone in my meager stash of orange and purple.  But I got to thinking--is it that we don't like these colors or that we don't buy them?  I love orange, but I keep a small amount of it.  Is it because there's less orange (and purple for that matter) on the market?  Is it because these colors are harder to picture online or even what to do with them at home?

Or is buying fabrics more emotional for many of us?  Are we drawn to greens and blues because they are calming and make us feel happier.  Do I (and many others) love aqua because it reminds us of fun times at the beach/lake/vacation in general?  Are we less likely to buy orange because it feels too bold or brash to us?  Does it make us think solely of Halloween or fall?  Are we more likely to buy this color in the fall?

And what about those middle-of-the-road colors?  Like red?  I was surprised to see it in the middle of both the likes and dislikes.  I LOVE red and am incredibly drawn to it, but only a very true, clear red.  My stash is almost completely a Crayola version of "red."

It seems like "traditional" quilters are often drawn to darker shades of color than "modern" quilters.  Or maybe darker and muter.  It seems that modern quilters like bright, clear color choices no matter the specific color.  Would you agree?  Are we just stepping away from what previous generations adored or is it something more?

So--I've accomplished nothing with this post other than hopefully making you think.  Think about what you like and what you use.  Are you drawn to certain colors more often than others?  Are you drawn to particular shades of that color?  Do you have emotional ties to certain colors?  Share with us in the comments.  Let's discuss one of quilters favorite things--choosing and buying fabrics.  Tell me why you pick what you do.

p.s.  I DIDN'T even straighten my shelves for this post as I just wrote it and took photos on a whim.  Sorry for all you OCDers out there that are wishing you could fix my piles.  This is as close to neat as my shelves usually get...  ;)