Last month we talked about why so many of us struggle to finish quilt projects and shared a few ideas to help us finally get those UFOs across the finish line. How did you do? Did you make any progress? I’m cheering you on!
It got me thinking…
Sometimes the greatest gift quilting gives us isn’t a finished quilt.
Sometimes it’s an afternoon spent surrounded by beautiful color.
Gotta Feel the Feels
Not gonna lie…I’ve had a rough week. It reminded me that quilting has always been about more than making quilts. Sometimes it’s therapy. Sometimes it’s quiet. Sometimes it’s simply the comfort of sitting down with beautiful fabrics and letting color do what words can’t.
Researchers have spent decades studying how color influences mood. While colors aren’t a cure for life’s challenges, many people find that surrounding themselves with certain colors can encourage feelings of calm, energy, comfort, or optimism. Quilters experience this every time we wander through a fabric shop and suddenly feel drawn to a bolt we never expected to love.
Once you’re aware of the emotional support color can have for you, as a quilter, you can take this one step further and use Color Therapy purposefully to help you process and express your feelings through your color choices in quilting.
Color Me Happy
While no color magically fixes our problems, psychologists have found that colors can influence our emotions, energy, and even how we perceive our surroundings. Whether it’s science, personal preference, or a little of both, quilters have been using color to lift their spirits for generations.
White – is the combination of all the colors in the color spectrum. It is associated with creativity – our clean canvas. White reflects cleanliness, purity, goodness, innocence, and hope.
Black – is the absence of all color. It reflects mystery, drama, strength, and power. Yet it can also be mournful, sobering, and evil.
Gray – is a careful, modest, practical color and can also represent sorrow. It can be modern and futuristic.
Pink – is the color of love. It is the most calming and gentle of all colors. It is feminine, affectionate, and sisterly love.
Red – is the color of life. It symbolizes passion, energy, optimism, determination, and anger. Red stimulates energy, blood pressure, and heart rate.
Purple – is royalty, elegance, prosperity, sophistication, and wisdom. It gives a sense of spirituality, calms the mind, and encourages creativity. Purple is considered to stimulate the brain to solve problems.
Blue – is tranquility, peace, harmonious, reliable, steadfast, and loyal. It also calms, sedates, and aids intuition. Statistics show you will fall asleep faster and sleep longer in a blue room.
Green – relaxes us mentally and physically, and helps alleviate anxiety. Green supports and stimulates health, new growth, generosity, and fertility.
Brown – is reliability, stability, friendship, longevity, comfort, earthiness, and conservation. Brown encourages you to slow down and relax. It is perfect for counterbalancing, contrasting, highlighting, or toning down other colors.
Yellow – is a happy color, cheerful, good times, playful, inspired, and also creative.
Gold – is an off-shoot of yellow and reflects promise.
Orange – is considered to be the most flamboyant color on the planet and reflects celebration, happiness, energy, a new dawn in attitude, and encourages socialization. It is also known to stimulate your appetite.
Quilters have known about Color Therapy long before anyone gave it a fancy name. We just called it buying one more fat quarter.
There may not be scientific proof that buying fabric solves every problem…but I’ve never regretted walking out of a quilt shop smiling.
Color Challenge
Open your fabric stash. Without thinking, pull out the five fabrics you’re most drawn to today. (Or go to your local quilt shop and do this challenge!)
Don’t choose with your head. Choose with your heart.
Then ask yourself…“What do these colors say about where I am right now?” And…”what color might I need a little more of?“
Every quilt tells a story, but sometimes the story isn’t about the finished quilt at all. Sometimes it’s about the comfort we found choosing fabrics, the peace we discovered while stitching, or the hope we pieced together one block at a time.
Want to learn more about Color Psychology? Instant download Quilters Color Therapy by Material Girlfriends $25 or printed on glossy paper Quilters Color Therapy booklet. $30
The 2026 Bona Fide Sew Along is Complete!
We made it! 🎉
Month 6—the final Bona Fide download—is now available, and Lora did an amazing job putting the quilt together. It turned out absolutely beautiful!
If you’ve been sewing along with us, congratulations on reaching the finish line. If you’re a little behind, don’t worry—there’s no deadline in quilting. The journey is just as rewarding as the destination.
All six monthly downloads (plus the Cover & Introduction pages) remain available on our website. Simply click on the 2026 Sew Along – Bona Fide page and scroll through to find each month’s download.
Whether you’re ready to add the final borders or you’re just getting started, we’re cheering you on every stitch of the way. We can’t wait to see your finished Bona Fide quilts! Share on the Material Girlfriends Quilting Gang facebook page.
What about next month? Don’t you worry. We have a new 3-yard pattern ready for the August free download!
Come See Us at the Quilt Show!
Lora and I are excited to be part of our local Delta Quilters Guild Quilt Show again this year, and we’d love to see you there! Stop by our Material Girlfriends booth to browse our newest quilt patterns, kits, rulers, and plenty of inspiration for your next project.
August 8–9, 2026
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (4pm on Sunday)
35 Oak Street, Brentwood, CA 94513
America the Beautiful
This year’s quilt show theme celebrates the breathtaking beauty and diversity of America’s National Parks. As part of the fun, visitors can participate in a special National Park Quilt Hunt.
Throughout the show, keep an eye out for five quilted wall hangings featuring:
- Denali National Park
- Grand Canyon National Park
- Shenandoah National Park
- Everglades National Park
- Acadia National Park
Find all five, mark them on your Quilt Show program, and turn it in to receive a raffle ticket. At the close of the show, five lucky winners will each take home the National Park wall hanging of their choice!
Whether you’re coming to shop, admire the quilts, or spend the day with fellow quilters, we hope you’ll stop by our booth to say hello. We always enjoy visiting with our quilting friends!
Leave a Reply