Color!

I'm headed out of town (California, to see my mother, daughter, brother & sister-in-law), but didn't want to lose my posting momentum. So here's some fun stuff about color. This is a close-up from a Roy G. Biv heartstrings quilt we made for Project Linus -- a rainbow scrappy quilt. And here's the whole quilt.
My Word A Day chose color words a week ago, and I thought it would be pretty ho-hum. After all, I know my colors, don't I? (Well, now that I've learned vermilion ...) And indeed, Monday and Tuesday were easy color words:

• ecru
• russet

But Wednesday?

• sorrel

I thought it must be green, like the plant, but it's a light reddish-brown color. Thursday was:

• umber

Also a an earthy reddish-brown, which I knew, but how is it different from sorrel? That I don't know. But the really fun shocker of the week for me came on Friday, with:

• subfusc

Subfusc? A color??? I know the word only from Dorothy Sayers mysteries (Gaudy Night in particular), where from context I divined* that it was student garb. And indeed it is, but so named because the color is "dark, drab, and gloomy". I wonder what they'll say at the quilt shop if I ask for some subfusc fabric. :-)

*If you've read Gaudy Night, do you get the "divine" pun?