Here's to the New Year! Pass the Marsala!

"A naturally robust and earthy wine red, marsala enriches our minds, bodies and souls." 

A quote from Pantone where the color experts have selected Marsala: 2015 Color of the Year!

Think rich, earthy, red clay to bright burning sand to the rock formations of Sedona.  Departing from Pantone's colors in the past, its a deeply grounding and highly symbolic color, as well. It can be quite sophisticated but doesn't stick her nose in the air and flaunt her beauty at all. And energetically, think of the sacred heart for symbolic meaning.

But why 'Marsala' you ask?  

Check out the last few year's colors and you can see not only the trend but the wonderful pairing and contrast, as well. 

But I can add this:   This is the year for truly going into one's deepest recesses of their hearts. Time to end the dissension, the ego's competition with all that resonates with the true spirit of love and 'at-one-ness'. Time to work together in harmony instead of trying always to be better, do better than others. You'll get more done and with right purpose guiding your heart instead of the ego of always wanting to stand out, be above and beyond. A time for grounding one's energy into nature, mother Earth, and get out into the essence of all that it means to create and to be in the flow of all creativity.  Time to enter the zone and sew, quilt, craft, or create!

And frankly, if someone partied a bit too much last night and spilled a little wine on their best white table cloth or hand pieced quilted table runner or deluxe set of placemats for 12.  You can over dye it and I'll even give you the recipe at the bottom of this post! You only need two simple colors..red and brown and all of that w(h)ining can come to a happy end!

And speaking of wine, one wine reporter, who apparently knows his marsala tells us "Marsala is pure Sicily. Whether sweet or dry, it's great for cooking into Italian favorites, and can be wonderful when combined with garden offerings like shallots, and fresh herbs like rosemary. If you sip marsala, you might taste flavors of vanilla, walnut, brown sugar or apricot."

And as for the color..well, I've always loved the olde worlde color of deep, rich, red wine. Mine has always been a bit brown tinged which is one of those love it or leave it colors. My Christmas red is barn red with a tinge of brown. So, cheers to that. I'm either still stuck in the 90's or ahead of the times!

I love marsala in the garden, too. Think Wine Coleus, Summer Wine Ninebark, Wine and Roses Weigela, Charmed Wine Oxalis, Imperial Wine Dahlia and Royal Plum Wine Verbena. Lovely contrasts for all of those pastels or bright yellows.

Can't quite imagine how you'd use it yet? Check out the color pairings chart!

And for crafting, sewing, or quilting...if the fabric isn't available in Marsala yet...make your own. Heck, if you hated that best white tablecloth you just spilled the wine on, but your mother in law gave it to you...over dye it and cut it up into art quilting projects!

And because, I want to keep it simple and down to earth, I'm sharing some of my Rit dye recipes from their website for creating Marsala. Pantone 2015 Color of the Year! I'm sure there are fancier recipes for artist quality dyes, but this works just fine for me and I have Rit  dyes always on hand.

I used them as a teen growing up on my little island in Alaska when fabric was hard to find in more than a few colors from the local Ben Franklin. I dyed and overdyed and redyed as my clothing got older and shabbier and did tie dye before I knew it was even style, more of a happy accident in the era before computers and all our news was a month late!
So..how lovely that

Rit Dye has already posted the recipe for creating your own!

All you need is Cocoa Brown and Scarlett ! 

And I quote from Rit's website:So that you can be on trend without trending toward paying a fortune for it, we’ve created the Marsala Pantone color formula, enabling you to mix the color together for yourself.

We’ve scaled the formula to three easy-to-use sizes:
• 1 quart for small items like wood beads or a tank top
• 3 gallon for a shirt or pair of jeans
• Washing machine for curtains and sheets

Liquid Dye
1 Quart 2 tsp Scarlet liquid Rit Dye 2 tsp Cocoa Brown liquid Rit Dye 1 quart water	3 Gallon 8 tsp Scarlet liquid Rit Dye 8 tsp Cocoa Brown liquid Rit Dye 3 gallons water	Washing Machine ½ cup (½ bottle – 4 oz) Scarlet liquid Rit Dye ½ cup (½ bottle – 4 oz) Cocoa Brown liquid Rit Dye Washing Machine load of water

New to mixing Rit Dye’s bottle colors together to create new colors? 
 Learn how. Watch Rit’s color mixing video


shown above:
My Christmas topper with the olde Christmas books removed and just the simple warmth left for January before February brings in my hearts and valentines.

Michele Bilyeu blogs With Heart and Hands as she shares a quilting journey from Alaska to Oregon with thousands of free Quilting, Sewing, and Crafting Patterns and Tutorials. Help change the world, one little quilt, art quilt, and prayer flag at a time!