Welcome to the first of four contests I’ll be holding here at the Color Mastery blog to celebrate being selected as a finalist for Best Craft Book of 2009 in the Ben Franklin awards.  I’m starting off with an easy-peasy contest for week one, and you won’t believe what I’ve got in store for Weeks 2 & 3!!

I’m an independent publisher:  basically, I’m a solopreneur who has a team of dedicated professionals I rely on to create beautiful books.  I don’t have the big advertising budgets of larger publishers, so I don’t do a lot of advertising, direct mail, or other expensive forms of promotion.  I rely on the best and most trusted way of promoting:  word-of-mouth.

I need your help.  Will you help me spread the word about Color Mastery’s finalist status for Best Craft Book of the Year?  Not only is it a fabulous book, but I’ve provided a wealth of fantastic resources here at the website to extend and support the lessons in the book.  So let’s get the word out!

Here’s what you do:

• spread the word to your quilting buddies online and let me know about it either by leaving a comment here on my blog or on my Facebook Fan page.  I respect everyone’s privacy, so I don’t need first & last names, just let me know “I emailed by guild program chairman” or “I suggested my quilting bee do a an author chat” or even “I spread the word about your newsletter to my sister.”

Here’s what I do:

• select a winner from all of the entries late Friday so you Pacific Time quilters can join in the fun, and I’ll announce the winner on Monday.

What will you win?  Well, I’m thinking something big.  Something really big.  So how about a jelly roll in a Wildflower color palette (fabrics personally coordinated by me), a Love Apple table runner kit, and a set of my watercolor notecards? That’s over $75 worth of prizes, just for shouting out the good news about Color Mastery.  Oh, and that colorful fabric goodness peeking out from the behind the prizes?  That’s May’s Color-of-the-Month table runner, which is running a bit late due to all the festivities.

Are you ready?

Set?

Go!  Spread the word!

It’s been strange over the past couple of weeks without my color journals.  I lovingly packed them off to Quilter’s Newsletter for an excerpt of the book they’re planning for a spring issue.  I was hesitant to send them, they are so much a part of me.  But I wanted to share the color journal process and its potential with quilters so they could explore their own color styles.

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Other videos you might be interested in:

• Color Palettes from a Quilter’s Stash
• New Colors for 2009/2010
• Using Prints in a Color Palette
• Creating a Quilter’s Color Wheel

Maud shares her Renaissance quilt from the Color Mastery workshop I taught this summer in Dawsonville.  My students use their color journals to discover the three elements of color and build unique palettes around their favorite color.  Even if quilters start out with the same blue, they’ll develop completely individual color palettes.  They truly discover their color personalities.

Last, I have students select one of their color palettes and build a fat quarter bundle from it:  one fat quarter for each color.  And I teach them how to use the Three Bears Rule of Color to know exactly how much of each color to use.  They can use that bundle to make the Renaissance quilt shown here.  Maud used a double-complementary color scheme of blue, orange, yellow, and violet, and what gorgeous results she got!

Maud was so inspired by her Renaissance quilt she decide to make a matching valance, and here she’s laying out the fabrics for it.  Discovering a new technique sparks the creative juices and gets new ideas flowing, and mastering color gives quilters the courage to try all kinds of new things.  Make time for an artist date for yourself and try these exercises.  You’ll never look at bolts of fabric the same way!

I want my work to last. Longevity is one of the three main goals I have for my books. The other two? A post for another day.

I realized long ago that it took just as long to write a book that was trendy and out of print after two years as it did to write a classic. And as a quilter and artist, I appreciate books that provide me with lessons for years to come.

I often hear people complain about how expensive books are, which is why I go for those that provide me with lasting value. I enjoy patterns, booklets, and other fun diversions. But they don’t have the lasting value of a book.

Color Mastery has nine quilt projects. If you bought them individually in a pattern, each would average $15.00. Multiply that times nine and you get $135.00.

Color Mastery also has 11 exercises, and has twelve months worth of class material. I teach shop owners how they can offer a different class each month using the exercises and projects in the book. A full-day class averages about $60.00, and 12 of them would be $720.00.

$135.00 worth of patterns/projects, and $720.00 worth of classes is a total of $855.00. Still think a book is expensive? Look’s like the world’s best bargain to me.

The real test of a book-lover’s book is this: does it provide those things that make a reader’s life easier, that will make the book last, and makes it easy to find, or get more information? I printed Color Mastery on museum-quality paper using the best photographer and printer in the industry.

I included an index to make information easy to find. Look at the latest quilt book you bought: I bet it doesn’t have one. Publishers are skimping on this kind of stuff and betting you won’t notice. Bibliographies too. I want to know how to find out more information when I’m interested in a topic, and I know my readers do too. And librarians love them.

Does the book’s binding last? Is it sewn or glued? Color Mastery’s is sewn, of course. And it has a spine, so you can find it on a store shelf or your own.

Look for these qualities when you buy a book. Be a discerning consumer. Expect them in your books and ask for them. And support quilt book authors who give you the best.

You can read more about it here.  After that, get quilting!  A suggestion?  Make the Renaissance quilt from Color Mastery.  Add a border and it makes a great summer throw.  Or make it in a table runner size in your favorite light and airy summer fabrics.

New Colors for 2009/2010

Quilter’s Newsletter June/July 2009 issue has an article on p. 37 (how’s that for specific!) by Luana Rubin, president of online fabric retailer eQuilter, in which Ms. Rubin forecasts the top 20 hot colors for quilters. She puts them together in a 5×4 grid, so that any two-block color combination makes a trendy color palette. Enjoy the video and the guidance it brings on actually putting these new hues to use in your quilts.  Download the chart listing the new colors here.

Using Prints in a Color Palette

This video answers the most-often asked question I received during my April/May book tour. In fact, at every stop a quilter had this question. I had no idea prints were so challenging to people, and I’m delighted I was able to connect with my readers long enough for us to really have a discussion about color.  In my classes students often bring fabrics that “read as solids,” and avoid busy prints altogether.  Here I offer a solution for coordinating your favorite prints, whether large-scale, small-scale, contemporary or reproduction, in to a color palette for your quilt.

I also teach a class based on this concept, and it’s a blast:  it’s like going to a quilt show, as everyone’s quilt and results are different.

Enjoy!  And you can subscribe to my YouTube Channel here.

Standing room-only last Friday evening at Sew Memorable for the Color Mastery book launch party. Jeanne’s team was so sweet and excited! They made homemade baby chocolate eclairs and weekend employees took off their day jobs to work in the shop all day to help Jeanne set up. Friends, quilters, even both of my sons’ teachers came to hear all the details on color in their quilts. I was amazed at the women who had “thought” about quilting, but never had taken the plunge, who were excited about putting fabrics together in a gorgeous quilt.

I was so touched by the women who told me:

• My daughter picks out colors for me and now I can do it!
• Thank you for writing this book – we really needed it.
• My sister selects my colors and I never like them.

So many quilters who were frustrated about color but now are excited about the prospect of mastering the color in their quilts.  Everyone went home with a brand new product, requested by you – dear readers! The Color Mastery Quilt Journal Kit on CD! Printable journal pages, all on a CD, so you can print and customize your own color journal. I’ll have more details as the week goes on – the CD will be available here soon!