Mocha Mousse: A Return to Dreadful Drabness

Dearest Readers,  

It appears the esteemed sages at Pantone have once again cast their dye pots into the murkiest waters and emerged clutching… *Mocha Mousse*, their crowning choice for 2025’s *Color of the Year*. A decision so baffling, so woefully uninspired, one must wonder if their swatch books were left out in the rain. For what else could explain such a dismal proclamation?  

Mocha Mousse—its name as cloying as its shade—is nothing more than brown cloaked in false finery. A muddy, lackluster hue that harkens back to the darkest corners of quilting history: the dreaded Civil War reproduction era. Are we truly meant to embrace this sepia-toned mediocrity in a time when modern quilting bursts forth in an array of luminous colors and bold innovation? Mistress Hemlock dares say not.  

Quilters, I ask you to imagine a bolt of Mocha Mousse sitting quietly on a shop shelf. Does it whisper of creativity? Does it call to be cut, pieced, and stitched into a masterpiece? Or does it linger, forlorn and forgotten, as hands reach instead for jewel tones, shimmering pastels, and fabrics that *sing* rather than mumble? The answer, of course, is evident.  

And yet, one suspects this choice was no mere oversight but an intentional regression. Are we to believe this dreary brown is grounding or earthy? That it speaks to some imagined “return to nature”? Nonsense. It speaks only of an uninspired committee desperate to be relevant by dragging us into the past.  

Let us not mince words, dear readers: the quilting world has worked too hard to escape the confines of drabness. We have fought for color, for vibrancy, for the sheer joy of creation that leaps off the quilt and lights up the room. To return now to an era of dreary browns and melancholy beige would be not just a mistake but an insult to our craft.  

But fear not, for Mistress Hemlock has faith in her fellow quilters. If Mocha Mousse must grace your stash, let it cower in the background, overshadowed by the brilliance of your true palette. Let it serve as a stark reminder of how far we’ve come and how little we must tolerate mediocrity.  

Pantone may attempt to dull our creativity with this tragic hue, but we, dear quilters, will resist. For quilting is not about blending into the past—it is about boldly stitching the future.  

Yours, ever vibrant and ever defiant,  

**Mistress Hemlock**  

*P.S. Pantone, I beg of you, leave the browns behind and return to inspiration. The quilting world deserves better than your beige betrayal.*  

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