My Mocha Mousse

Lucky me, I found a swatch card of the Pantone COTY 2025 Mocha Mousse in my Christmas stocking! (Thanks @snippetsofsweetness!) So once the holidays were past, I got out my color cards and ordered up some possible fabric matches.

 

Honestly, I'm not 100% happy with my findings. It was really surprising how many colors looked like possibilities on the color card (or website), but in person, just were really not close at all. So here's what I gathered up to consider....

Bottom to top: 

• Kona Suede
• Kona Biscuit
• Ruby & Bee Field Mouse
• Moda Bella Solids Cocoa
• Riley Blake Confetti Nutmeg
• Painter's Palette Mocha

See the range of browns there? 

Of these, there is no perfect match, but the closest is Painter's Palette Mocha, and that's what I'm going to deem 'my' choice for mocha mousse. (No matter where I took a photo, the match seems closer in person than in a photo. Go figure.)

Second in line is Kona Suede. After I'd placed my fabric order, I was able to look at Steph @stephskardal's Pantone Matcher on her QuiltySolid app. (I have an Android phone and wasn't able to access the info earlier for some reason.) Anyway, the app now shows a few more considerations, if you want to search even further.

But I think I'll stick with the Painters Palette Mocha for now, and am looking forward to the annual Pantone Quilt Challenge @pantonequiltchallenge hosted by Sarah @bysarahruiz and Elizabeth @elizabethkray sometime this year. I'll be curious to see what they - and others - think is a good match. Until then....

Mocha Mousse

With very little fanfare, Pantone announced their 2025 Color of the Year yesterday, Mocha Mousse. 

Received with somewhat skeptical reviews - at least on their IG post - I personally kinda love it. And with Sarah @saroy and Elizabeth @elizabethkray hosting the Pantone Quilt Challenge 2025 next spring, I'll definitely be playing with it. Daughter dear, Rachel @snippetsofsweetness has already ordered our official Pantone swatches, so I'll be searching for good fabric matches in the months ahead.

Meanwhile, I can't resist sharing a review of my previous Pantone-inspired quilts. It's tradition! Next year will make 14(!) years.

:: Peach Fuzz 2024 :: "Keen"

:: Viva Magenta 2023 :: "Verve"

:: Very Peri 2022 :: "Red Cross Meets Very Peri"

:: Ultimate Gray and Illuminating 2021 :: "Some Like It Medium"

:: Classic Blue 2020 :: "Utterly Blue"

:: Living Coral 2019 :: "Timeless"

:: Ultra Violet 2018 :: "Grape Fizzy"

:: Greenery 2017 :: "Evergreenery"

:: Rose Quartz and Serenity 2016 :: "Pantone Meets Bias Tape"

:: Marsala 2015 :: "Sizzling"

:: Radiant Orchid 2014 :: "Radiancy"

:: Emerald 2013 :: "An Emerald Table"

:: Tangerine Tango 2012 :: "Tangerisk"

So what do you think? Like it or not, do you anticipate dabbling with Mocha Mousse in the new year? If you haven't joined in the Pantone Quilt Challenge before, I encourage you to. It's always a fun challenge with amazing results.

Verve

It's been a few months since I explored options for a near Viva Magenta match, but when the Pantone Quilt Challenge 2023 hosted by Sarah @saroy and Elizabeth @elizabethkray was announced, I took time to curate a bundle that I actually wanted to work with. Initial inspiration came from a beverage coaster, but after that, my interpretation was very loose. 

My beginning fabrics included:

• Painter's Palette Raspberry
• Kona Silver
• Pure Solids Dragonfruit
• Ruby Plaid from Entwine by Giucy Giuce
• AG Kaleidoscope Solids in Strawberry

I created a variety of pieced stripes to start, and eventually they morphed into angled sections. Kona Coal had quickly been added to the mix for some needed contrast. And then Kona Rich Red seemed a fun add when it came time for the final layout.

For a quilt back, I found the perfect print in my stash - an urban classics piece by Nancy Mahoney for P&B Textiles. It wasn't quite wide enough, so I simply added a strip of Kona Ash to bring it to size.

An angled grid was super fun to quilt, and I used Aurifil 50wt threads in both 1103 [burgundy] and 2250 [red], though the difference isn't that noticeable in photos. The burgundy was used in both directions in the upper left quadrant, and the red in the rest of the quilt. So the upper left quadrant is quilted in all burgundy, the lower right in all red, and the remaining quadrants were a combination. 

Matched binding seemed an obvious choice for this one, which I am naming "Verve." It measures 32.5" x 35", which means it fits in the Quilts category of the Pantone Quilt Challenge. I'm very happy to have experimented with the Pantone Color of the Year for the 12th year(!) and am so glad that Sarah and Elizabeth hosted the challenge. Looking forward to seeing what others have made!

Linking up with the Pantone Quilt Challenge Linkup.

VERVE

by Debbie Jeske, 2023

32.5" x 35"

USA

Linking up with Meadow Mist Designs' Favorite Finish Monthly Linkup.

Very Peri

It's here! The Pantone Color of the Year 2022 was announced yesterday. Meet Very Peri!

Personally, I kinda love it! "A new Pantone color whose courageous presence encourages personal inventiveness and creativity." Wow. That sure sounds promising, doesn't it? AND "For the first time in Pantone’s history, [it] has dreamt up a brand-new shade for its 2022 color of the year selection." I kinda like that too. I'll be dabbling with Very Peri in the new year for sure.

Keeping with tradition, this will be my 11th(!) year creating with the Pantone COTY. Here's a review of my previous Pantone-inspired creations....

:: Ultimate Gray and Illuminating 2021 :: "Some Like It Medium"

:: Classic Blue 2020 :: "Utterly Blue"

:: Living Coral 2019 :: "Timeless"

:: Ultra Violet 2018 :: "Grape Fizzy"

:: Greenery 2017 :: "Evergreenery"

:: Rose Quartz and Serenity 2016 :: "Pantone Meets Bias Tape"

:: Marsala 2015 :: "Sizzling"

:: Radiant Orchid 2014 :: "Radiancy"

:: Emerald 2013 :: "An Emerald Table"

:: Tangerine Tango 2012 :: "Tangerisk"

Meanwhile, there's plenty being written about the new color. Let me know what you think!

• The announcement from Pantone 
• Pantone Created a Completely New Hue for Its 2022 Color of the Year, Kelly Allen, House Beautiful
• Pantone's 2022 color of the year symbolizes how COVID-19 has transformed the world, Hannah Yasharoff, USA TODAY
• The Pantone Color of the Year 2022 Is Here—and It's Totally Unexpected, Katie Holdefehr, RealSimple
• Pantone unveils 'Very Peri' as Color of the Year for 2022, Leah Dolan, CNN
• Pantone’s 2022 color of the year, Very Peri, will help us ‘rewrite our lives’, Amy Kuperinsky, NJ.com
• Why Pantone Created a Whole New Color for the 2022 Color of the Year, Cady Lang, TIME

My Yellow and Gray

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....

Ultimate Gray and Illuminating

It's here! The Pantone Color of the Year 2021 was announced yesterday, and for just the second time ever, THE color is actually a pair: Ultimate Gray and Illuminating.

From Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute, "the union of an enduring ultimate gray with the vibrant yellow illuminating expresses a message of positivity supported by fortitude. Practical and rock solid but at the same time warming and optimistic, this is a color combination that gives us resilience and hope. We need to feel encouraged and uplifted; this is essential to the human spirit." Personally, I welcome all that positivity, so I'll take it!

And if I keep with tradition, this will be my 10th(!) year creating with the Pantone COTY. Here's a review of my previous Pantone-inspired creations....

::Classic Blue 2020 :: "Utterly Blue"

:: Living Coral 2019 :: "Timeless"

:: Ultra Violet 2018 :: "Grape Fizzy"

:: Greenery 2017 :: "Evergreenery"

:: Rose Quartz and Serenity 2016 :: "Pantone Meets Bias Tape"

:: Marsala 2015 :: "Sizzling"

:: Radiant Orchid 2014 :: "Radiancy"

:: Emerald 2013 :: "An Emerald Table"

:: Tangerine Tango 2012 :: "Tangerisk"

I find it interesting reading about the new colors and why they were chosen. If you do too, here's some good reading from a variety of sources:

• The 2021 Colors of the Year have Arrived - Here's What to Expect, Reviewed
• Pantone Picks Two Colors of the Year for 2021. It’s all about the messaging. Get ready for a brighter future., New York Times
• This Is Pantone’s 2021 Color of the Year, Apartment Therapy
• Pantone picks two colors of the year, and they’re complete opposites, Fast Company
• Pantone unveils its 2021 Color(s) of the Year: Ultimate Gray and Illuminating, CNN
• Why Pantone Selected Not One but Two Colors of the Year for 2021, Time