The Power of a Pastel Palette

I love bright vibrant colours and I cannot lie! Also, not too long ago, I called the colour Pink “bah” , refusing to consider it for my quilt. Lately I’ve been working on overcoming this prejudice against Pink … but even there, I’ve used the bright dark pinks( a shade darker and it would be in maroon territory 🙄) and never any of the lighter hues. In any other colour too, I’ve never really preferred the pastel hues. Maybe it’s an Indian thing - everything we see or experience is always dialled up to full volume , be it colour, jewellery, sequins , summer, sunlight, expressions, emotions (especially the ones we choose to share😜) ….subtlety is not our strongest suit !

So when I had a friend who wanted some pink and some not so vibrant colours in the quilt….I found myself in a soup, so to speak ! I’ve been loving using bright bright colours and successfully, to my immense surprise … and to now not be able to use them for my first portrait commission was daunting to say the least. Nevertheless, it was a challenge … a challenge on top of another big challenge - for the first time, I would be making a portrait of people that I’ve never even met! I mean, I know I’d be making a pattern and following it, so how wrong could I really go ? But I’ve lived through the many iterations on my BIL’s nose , my friend’s eyes, my husband’s smile on my other quilts ….and know that I’d have settled for the first version if I didn’t know that something was not right. Here, I worried that that feeling of “something is not right” would elude me since I didn’t know them personally!

My friend chose a black and white photo of her parents to be made into a quilt for their 50th wedding anniversary! Here’s the handsome couple ….

Well, to start off, I rummaged through my stash for any pastel coloured fabric ….obviously I didn’t find much, but on a positive note, I did end up cleaning and sorting my stash as a result of this! 🤷🏻‍♀️ So ya … off to the online fabric store it was … and here again, I had no clue what I was looking for. It didn’t help that I wasn’t too thrilled or open about pastels either. Anything I saw I associated with baby quilts or girly quilts ….not 50th anniversary material. Well, sometimes you just have to take the plunge ….so I looked for material with some interesting prints that I knew I would like or would want to use …it seemed easier to pick this way rather than the colours. So basically, I did what I’m supposed to do - ignore the colour, choose the value - albeit in a roundabout way ! 😅

Now, I had some fabric. A lot of baby pinks and blues and light greens and light yellows …ah, the stuff of my nightmares! 👻🥴 My pattern was ready. I had to just start. Okay. So I pick up a pink and a blue and do some basic cutting of the shapes and add a bit of yellow and lay it out….and I absolutely hate it ! I try looking at the values …it’s too early to do this, I know, but I do this anyway, and I’m in a bigger soup ! This is a commission , and it’s just not working ! 😱 🤯

Oh, what a mess !

After a few days of stewing about this , I force myself to just get on with it. Doesn’t matter if you don’t like it ….just get something on the board there ! 🤷🏻‍♀️ Then assess what works and what doesn’t. When that didn’t work as well, I used another tried and tested tactic - move on to the other face and revisit this later. While I won’t go so far as to say that it all worked out, I did get some idea of what fabric I liked next to what and what can be used and what can’t. I also revisited my stash, and found that there was stuff I could use…something I hadn’t realised before since I was too closed off ! So armed with more fabric, new information and renewed courage and a sort of open mind, I delved deeper into this pastel world.

Green beginnings ….I’m hopeful this’ll work ….

My decision to move to the other face while having problems with the first helped me on two levels - one, it kept the creative process ongoing and so it was measurable progress however small it may be , and two, I was free to start off with a new colour if I chose to, freeing me from the shackles of Pink. Of course, I would still need to find a way to tie it all in together….but at least I had options, had another way of getting there ! So I chose a green that wasn’t either too bright or too green …in fact, certain areas of the fabric could even fall under pastel (at least that’s what I thought🙄) … and started pulling out fabrics and patterns furthering that. And somewhere along the line, things started to fall in place.

Much better, isn’t it?

Another challenge … the biggest one… was making portraits of people I’ve never seen before. Took a lot of second guessing on basically every feature , even every piece that I was putting in, to finally get over it !😅

Examples of some iterations …. some are really minute changes, others drastic ones, and some were redone altogether!

The end result is something that awed me ! 😍

The pastel palette really brought an ethereal quality to the entire picture ….almost like the black and white photo had been lightly coloured and texturised ! The softness of the colours in no way undermined the striking features of the handsome couple , but actually accentuated them ! The colours and the prints added interest and a soft drama , without overwhelming it.

And as for my colour nemesis, Pink ….I’m seeing her in a new light (pun intended) !

Happy Quilting !