Welcome to our very first TCJ Color Play Guidebook! We plan to explore and share behind the scenes content of how I curate each bundle. You can expect a project timeline, bundle photos, palette board, fabric information, a mood board, a letter from me and a few in depth shares behind my bundle inspiration. Let's get to it!
Meet the first TCJ Color Play bundle - Bundle No. 1! She is fresh, floral and spilling over with pastel and neon vibes. Keep scrolling for even more bundle photos!
Here is our Bundle No. 1 Launch Timeline. We started teasing this bundle with a mini mood board share a couple of weeks ago, then shared the palette tease last week and now it's time for full launch! The TCJ Color Play Bundle No. 1 is available in the shop as of today, May 16th, 2026 and you are currently reading our guidebook! The bundle should ship next week and depending on where you live, arrive by the end of May!
Ya'll, I am so excited about this new bundle project! From the very beginning of my quilting journey (10 years ago!), I was immediately drawn into this craft because of fabric and all the colors I could possibly play with. I first fell in love with fabric and then I fell in love with the sewing and then I fell in love with the design and puzzle aspect of making a quilt. And over the last 10 years, my relationship with quilting has evolved and grown and ebbed and flowed but the one constant that remains is my love of color.
From 2018 - 2019 I curated FQ bundles for a local quilt store here in Portland, OR. I got to go into the store before it opened and make whatever bundle I wanted with the bolts they had on hand. I was a kid in a candy shop. I love love loved it. I didn't even have to cut it or photograph it myself! I just got to play with fabric and then share what I created. It was a true joy.
In 2020, I realized I would love to do this myself - curate a palette, buy the fabric and produce the bundles in house. What better way for me to add a revenue stream to my business while also doing what I love most? Also, I am good at it. So it's a win win. Well, the one thing I couldn't have foreseen was that buying fabric in bolts can snowball FAST. One bundle at a time became multiple bundles. Then quilt kits and backings and bindings. Then a big studio space and hundreds of bolts and constant bills and overhead and production. Fabric started taking over my life and became not fun. It became heavy and constant and I lost my love for it.
So in 2025 I decided it was time to say goodbye to the fabric season we had been in from 2022 - 2025. It was time to stop it all and pause and reset. I needed a break and I needed to figure out what I actually wanted and enjoyed in the process. So we stopped buying new fabric, sold out of all of our fabric and paid off all of our fabric bills. And I got a chance to breathe and decompress and see what rose to the surface.
And you know what came afloat? This idea. Going back to my first love, color and fabric. Going back to playing. Going back to one project at a time. Going back to curation solely for the joy of it. And that is how we came up with this idea for TCJ Color Play.
TCJ Color Play is my way of bringing you a one-time, limited edition, curated Fat Quarter Bundle based on what is inspiring me right now, meant to help you build your stash! When I shop for fabric, I am very instinct driven and it’s usually NOT with a specific project in mind but with my stash in mind. So that is what I hope to help you build, a beautifully curated FQ stash that helps inspire your next make.
TCJ Color Play is NOT about turning a single bundle into a project, although you absolutely can. I will not be providing mock ups because my goal isn’t to provide you a prepackaged idea with the end product obvious. I want to give you the supplies and help you find inspiration while you build a stash that is easy to dive into and find gorgeous fabrics. These bundles will be based on my aesthetic so if you trust that, you can trust these.
I can't wait to see how this project evolves and all the gorgeous bundles I will curate. I am so excited and I hope you love this project just as much as we do!
Each TCJ Color Play bundle starts with inspiration. I love to use Pinterest for this part of the process. Anything that jumps out to me, I pin to a secret board for future reference. As you can see, I pin floral art, interiors, graphic text art, landscape art and more. The idea for a mood board is to capture the general vibe I'm excited by and use it as a launching pad when I start searching for fabric. Here is the mood board for TCJ Color Play Bundle No 1.
Almost every piece of art has some degree of yellows and greens in it. And then there is also a pop of blues, teals and a little pink. And all of them range in tone between warm and cool and I found a through line with a sort of pastel palette. The other thing to note besides color is the texture each picture provides. There are harsh lines and soft lines, there is dappled light in the paintings. This also leads me to choose fabrics that have similar vibes. So this inspiration board was my guiding light when I went searching for fabric and a specific color palette.
And now here is an in-depth look of our TCJ Color Play Bundle No. 1!
We have a selection of Liberty prints, ginghams, checks, and stripes, geometric designs and loads of florals. And I've sprinkled in a few neons and metallics too. She's gorgeous.
Again, the idea for TCJ Color Play is to provide you with a curated bundle that you can use to build your stash. This bundle just happens to include all the things I love most and in a color palette that is delicious. In future bundles, I may do the same or I may do something totally different like all stripes or all blues or whatever floats my boat! That's the best part for me, allowing inspiration to lead me.
Each bundle release will be limited edition and will NEVER restock. Once these bundles are sold out, that is it until our next bundle. The fabric names are provided above so if it sells out fast, you can source your own fabrics to match a bundle. Please note that the very bottom left fabric (blue fabrics) may be one of these two due to manufacturer availability.
This Living Room image was the first one I pinned for inspiration. The soft blue and steel striped couch, the gold pillows, the green vases, the pop of red in the tray behind the couch, the purple coffee table book, and the green glass balls and window squares. IT IS PERFECTION. It provides an overall color story that is soothing but is interesting. It's not too loud but it's also not one note. Love Love Love it.
Bailey Schmidt has such a fun and bold color aesthetic, you have to check out her art. She uses neon in a way that makes me love being alive. This Cut Flowers print made me want to include multiple different types of floral fabrics into my first bundle. Flowers are unique through their shapes, color, structure and texture. Also I loved her use of different green tones from hunter green, olive green, to the teal green at the top right of her print. That teal is one of the reasons I decided to add in a bit of teal to the first bundle. And I want to note that I did not use this print as my palette guide. It's not always about matching the exact palette to a single piece of inspiration.
I can't believe I just found Sophie McPike. She is an artist and her Instagram page is full of gorgeous painted artwork. This specific post jumped out at me for its quilt vibes as well as its color gradients. I love the interplay of warm and cool tones as well as moving through the ROYGBIV rainbow. When I started out curating my first bundle, I wasn't sure if I wanted a multiple color palette or if I wanted a more narrow palette. This photo reminded me I love all the colors and so I decided I wanted the palette to show multiple colors in a few different saturations and tones.
This living room was designed by Golden Design and it's a reminder than you can breathe life into any room with one or two small simple things - Color and Texture. Although this room is mostly soft neutrals - the walls, the carpet, the trim, the lamp - it has such a vitality to it through the neon acid green door wood work and the mix of textures. There is a metal and glass coffee table, an acrylic and wood side table, a curved velvet light pink couch, a leopard print window cushion. It's a reminder that you only need one or two things in a color palette to pop to bring it to life. This is where I decided to make sure I added neon and metallic touches to the bundle.
And that wraps up our first TCJ Color Play - Bundle No. 1 Guidebook! You can check out the TCJ Color Play bundle listings here.
