In my head I can hear Blackadder‘s hapless sidekick, Baldrick, saying in his lugubrious way, “Today is the Gloomy-ist Gloomy Day in the whole history of Gloomy Days”.  This view from my sewing room window hasn’t changed all day:

Thankfully sewing has banished the Winter blues greys for me today.  I decided to take a break from the projects I’ve been working on through the week and lift the lids on my boxes of quilt-a-long blocks.  Making the 3rd of Alyce’s Modern HST Sampler blocks had my mind full of the sweet, bright colours of citrus fruit at the height of Summer.

The orange block was the addition to the Modern HST Sampler collection today.

Switching to the fabrics I’ve chosen to use for Amy’s Sugar Block Club blocks I was soon basking in the rich, golden light of Autumn.

For me, the link between colour hues and seasons is very strong. I wonder if it is for most of us?  All colours are part of nature so why not categorize them by season or perhaps by terrain: mountain, desert, jungle, ocean?  Twenty five years ago ‘Colour Me Beautiful’ consultations were very popular among my friendship group. A consultant would establish whether a person had predominately winter, spring, summer or autumn colouring and then advise on complementary choices in clothes and make up.  I can think of a couple of friends who invested in a consultation and the transformation that took place in their clothing and appearance was striking (in a good, confidence-building way).

I’ll leave you with a few more photos of the winter banishing fabrics I’ve been enjoying today 🙂

Trimming the hst blocks. This is the first time I’ve used the method that creates eight hst from just two squares of fabric. (See Alyce’s post for clear instructions)

Hope the sun is shining on you,

Allison