Thanks right off to my daughter, Rachel/@snippetsofsweetness, who kept up tradition and ordered us official Pantone Color of the Year swatch cards after the 2021 colors were announced. A pair this year - Illuminating and Ultimate Gray - the goal was now to find fabrics that closely 'matched' the actual swatches. This year I happened to have four different fabric manufacturers' color cards in hand, so that's pretty much where I focused my attention, which was fine, because I found good matches right there.
Surprisingly (no offense of course), two of them, RJR Cotton Supreme Solids and Painter's Palette Solids had nothing I considered really close. Obviously they have yellows and grays that would be great to pair, but as far as having a match to the definitive Pantone swatch cards, they did not.
But in looking through the Michael Miller Cotton Couture and Robert Kaufman Kona color cards, I found several options I thought worth considering, and promptly ordered some of each.
The yellows I ordered:
Cotton Couture in Citrus
Kona in Bright Idea
Kona in Citrus
And the grays:
Kona in Overcast
Cotton Couture in Pewter
For Illuminating, it was a surprising but obvious choice among the fabrics I'd ordered. Though I had anticipated one of the Citruses winning out, it was actually Kona Bright Idea.
And for Ultimate Gray, it was a challenge, as both Overcast and Pewter are REALLY good choices. By themselves, you can see they are different, but when each were put next to the color card, they both looked like very close matches. In fact, standing together in good natural light, at first hubby chose the Pewter, and I chose the Overcast. But after considering again and again on different days, I also choose Cotton Couture Pewter, though Kona Overcast (a personal favorite) would indeed be a very close choice.
So.... there you go! Not a scientific experiment in the least, but those are my choices for this year's colors of the year. Now to think up a project....
Interesting side story: my mom named her new kitten last February Overcast after the color swatch and they call him OC for short. Thanks as always for the color matching information on the color(s) of the year!
ReplyDeleteyou're so awesome to do this research for us every year! I've ordered the bright idea and overcast (love my kona!) and look forward to playing with the colors this year. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your work in figuring this out! xo Melanie
ReplyDeleteThanks for doing all the work for us Debbie! I’m definitely going to be ordering some Bright Idea and some Overcast to make a quilt this year.
ReplyDeleteYes thanks Debbie for doing the work...when you can't get to stores easy this is always hard to accomplish!! I will file this info for my next mail order list! Namaste!
ReplyDeletethank you for doing this!!! I have to order for my guild and you have saved me so much trouble!!!
ReplyDeleteGood for you to do such research that will benefit anyone wanting to make a Pantone quilt in 2021. No, I'm not surprised that Painter's Palette doesn't have matches. Though it's my #1 favorite quilting solid, Paintbrush Studios don't ever add new colors. I'm reluctant to order Kona (ever) because it bleeds so badly, but I do when there's a color I really want, like Wabi-Sabi, or Horizon, the 2021 color of the year. I know you will have fun making your Pantone quilt. We'll all be watching with anticipation!
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