Determining Colors for Birthday Quilts 

Mary Ellen Cummings

Last month I promised you a formula to determine your "Birth Color." Our example uses December 13, 1930, as the birthday.

1930 = year 1+9+0=13 (1+3)= 4
12= month (1-2)= 3
13= day (1-3)= 4
Total 11 (1+)= 2

Use the following chart to find your color: 1 - Red; 2 - Orange; 3 - Yellow; 4 - Green; 5 - Blue; 6 - Indigo;7 - Violet; 8 - Pink; and other pastels; 9 - All other colors.

Also, last month, I gave you a very brief lesson on the things the color red represents. Continuing that theme, here are some of the meanings for yellow and blue, the other two primary colors.

Yellow is a color of the intellect. It is the sun’s rays. It is joyful. Yellow gives you a lift –- as in spring, the early flowers, such as how the Easter flowers lift your spirit. Yellow, the most prominent color of the spectrum, jumps out at you — for example, a yellow caution light. In quilts using mixed colors, the quiltmaker must use yellow sparingly or it will interrupt the flow of the pattern. Yellow is the color of creativity.

The other primary color, blue, is the color of peace and harmony; it is the color of divine inspiration. It is cooling, quiet and relaxing. A blue light in a bedroom is said to induce sleep. (Of course, if you go to sleep with the blue light burning, it will stay on all night.) However, you could use a quilt with prominent blues to calm you into a deep sleep.

Our language makes full use of the color blue: blue laws, blue Monday, blue moon, swear a blue streak. And on the brighter side are bluebloods and bluebirds.

 Read other Quilting articles by Mary Ellen Cummings