If you ask me: “Tierney what is your favorite color?” I would likely reply “Purple“.
There is very little purple in my recent art of utility quilts. There is very little Purple in my house. However, there is a lot of ORANGE.
I would never say that Orange is my favorite color but if you look at the background on my blog (which is a photo of a quilt I made based on an old tile floor); if you look at the quilts I have made over the past 5 – 6 years (art and utility quilts); and if you look in my fabric stash, you would think I was beholden to the color Orange.
Check out a photo of my living room area – notice a lot of “shades of orange” in the quilts on the wall?
I am not sure when my apparent and subconscious love of the color Orange began and I am not sure when it will end.
There was an article in the 2015 premiere issue of Room to Create magazine on “Color & Creativity” (page 8). In this article the publication discusses how color impacts mood. Here is an excerpt of what the article said on the color Orange:
ORANGE
Looking for excitement, energy and enthusiasm? Orange may be your soulmate.
I guess Orange is my “color soulmate”!
Do you have any color that keeps surprisingly appearing in your work?
POSTSCRIPT
I just realized that I had the quilt below on the wall of my living room for a number of years. I will be showing/selling it in this year’s Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. The ORANGE is really strong and prevalent in this quilt!

I love that orange–and the other earth colors. I see lots of greens, browns, oranges, warm, warm, warm. Beautiful.
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Thanks Martha!
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Hmmm. I’m usually more surprised by what I think should be in my stash but isn’t…couldn’t be because I used it all up, nah. Maybe it is time for inventory and filling in holes–and shopping.
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I have a lot of green in my stash too; maybe I need to just make a lot of green and orange quilts!
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Hope it doesn’t turn out as bad as my orange and brown 36 patch! Right now I have a lot of aqua/teal because I thin I have made a match and it is off. Every year I think they shift it toward yellow or toward blue, always the opposite of what I want. It is going out almost as fast as it comes in.
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Teal! I have lots of unused teal! Why do we buy teal?!? Ha! Oh I liked your orange and brown patch if this is the same one you posted😀
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Now I know where the background I talked about liking earlier came from. For me I personally don’t like colors pink and red but somehow that’s what’s been popping up in my work lately. I dunno when I acquired all those red and pink fabrics… I’d generally say purple is my favorite too and I’ve been slowly building a blue stash.
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That is interesting – I will say I dislike red and pink together but then I see a quilt in which it works very well. Thanks for your comments 😀
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I use a lot of purple. It can be old-fashioned and subdued, bright and whimsical, or strong and bold. But I don’t wear purple ever (it does nasty things to my coloring), and I wouldn’t decorate with purple. So I guess it surprises me from that standpoint. I add orange to more quilts all the time, but as an accent color usually. And I’ve used a lot more black over the last couple of years. The thing about orange is that it’s such a great offset for almost EVERYTHING else. Easy to put in, IMO.
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A purple decorated house would be intense. I can wear purple but only deep purple. Thanks for commenting 😀
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A LONG time ago I read that quilters tend to make quilts in colors they wear, presumably because they used scraps. The article urged us to think separately of quilts and clothing. I doubt that clothing connection happens now, though.
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Right. Most of us aren’t making our own clothes, and if we do, not necessarily from quilting-weight cottons. However, it’s possible that we have favorite colors, and gravitate to them for both clothing and quilting.
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Reds seem to be my theme! Whenever I look at new fabrics, I am always drawn to the ones with red. I am trying to expand my stash so it is more balanced!
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Red is a pretty awesome color!
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This is a great Q and very strange…..my favorite color is purple and they’re have been lots of oranges and rusty colors lately on my stuff too. Golds. And magenta. They can be gorgeous although I’m no fan of orange either! 💜💜💜
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We must be on the same wavelength, ha! I remember that strong orange painting you posted that took my breath away with the color. I cannot explain why it appealed to me so much. Must be an orange addiction ha! 😀
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Isn’t it crazy? I really love to paint in it, but boy…….not sure what it is. Red-orange though, I don’t like. I like medium and yellow-oranges. You too?
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Orange seems to find a way into most of my quilts.
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And you use it well 😀
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Not really….but I like orange
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I had to laugh when I read this. I would say my favorite color is red…but then I’m passionate about most colors except yellowish/brownish greens. I recently had my studio on tour and decided to reorganize my stash. I realized I was mighty short on orange. Hmmm I guess I don’t use it often. Then someone came in and commented ab out all the orange in my quilts that are hanging in my studio alone…not to mention in my house. Well, I guess I have just depleted my supply without recognizing that. It is a star.
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Orange is insidious! It is sneaking into our quilts 😀. Thanks for your great comment Christine!
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As I try to break my addiction to purple, orange has begun appearing in my wardrobe (just bought three new orange dresses and pair of funky orange shoes). I’m working on a quilted Halloween pattern in orange and — wait for it — purple! I love to see your work displayed together.
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Orange shoes! Oh those must be cool!
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