Hi First name / friend!

It's Rashida checking in today! How are you doing this fine Saturday? For me it feels like January 53rd. I could have sworn January had 31 days! I've been quite the busy bee over here in my neck of the woods. I've got a lot of art making and book making happening and I've also been cutting fabric for my Studio Box sale that happened earlier this month.(Trying my best to get those out before Quilt Con. *insert sweating emoji*) While I've been going through all of the fabric that I have( and oh boy it's A LOT), I realized that though I have such a beautiful rainbow of colors, one color that I have an abundance of is neutrals and white on white(WOW). I thought I'd share some of that with you today!

Believe it or not, these prints are my most favorite in my fabric stash! I know! I'm sure that may seem odd coming from someone that adores color and works with so much color on a regular basis. Hey, I wear all black all the time, too. So there's that. 

 

The calm, quiet of this bunch is what I think I'm drawn to the most and I've been collecting them for several years now. 

Linen is my first love! Even my blog back in the day was called I Heart Linen! So I've got quite a collection of linen printed with white on it. But my neutral love doesn't stop there. I also have double gauze, quilted neutrals, embroidered neutrals, metallics, neutrals with little pops of color.  I also have some lovely prints from one of my favorite designers, Nani Iro! Gotta catch them all! 

Neutral colors can have an impact on our mood and emotions, often making us feel more calm and stable. They remind us of natural elements like wood, sand, and stone, which can evoke a sense of peace and grounding, as people often find nature to be calming and restorative. Neutral colors are a great choice for places where we want to feel relaxed.

 

When I moved into my own place a little over a year ago, I wanted my bedroom to be my sanctuary and I chose a very neutral palette for it. I knew that the first few months would be difficult and that I would probably spend a lot of time in that room mourning the loss of my marriage. And I did. I wanted it to be serene, calming, and a safe space for healing. And it is. 

I wanted it to quiet the noise that was/is in my head and my heart. And it has. 

My ultimate goal with these prints is to make a GIANT quilt for my bed. I'm really excited about creating a big quilt that combines these different textures, substrates, and shades.The thought of it fills me with so much delight words cant even express it! I truly hope that I can find the perfect quilt pattern for it. Although, designing my own pattern seems like it would make it even more personal and a creative challenge that I would thoroughly enjoy! I'll keep you posted on my progress with that.  

Neutral colors are so versatile, can easily blend in with other colors allowing them to stand out. They also help to highlight the textures and shapes in designs, adding detail and interest without using bright colors. Over the years I've made sure that I included a WOW print in each of my collections. I really love how sometimes you can't see the print on the fabric right away, then it materializes and it's this fun little surprise! I just LOVE subtle tricks like that! I'd say that it definitely has something to do with my mischievous side, so I will never stop including them in my collections. Hehehe. 

My most coveted print in my neutral collection is this wideback Zip print that never came to be. You can see the original Zip print on the right to compare scale. I received a couple of yards of this massive lovely from the studio during our strike-off process. Sadly, it was printed with pigment and the white stripes just came out way too hard and crunchy, so it was never taken to production. I'm not sure what to do with it, since it hasn't been treated and it wouldn't be very soft if I used it. It would have been THEE perfect backing for my fantasy neutrals quilt! *cries in seam ripper* I'm sure I've got some other WOW wideback tricks up my sleeve though. 

 

Have you found an abundance of certain colors or prints that you truly love, love, love in your stash? Reply to the this email and let me know!