Shimmering Quilt Sky

Old English scimerian, to glisten — present-participle of shimmer, sharing root with shine. As a color modifier, shimmering implies a saturated-and-soft-flicker-reflective quality, the bright color of moonlit-water-and-silken-fabric surface-reflection. Sits at the bright-and-reflective end of the grid, parallel to glistening and glimmering in usage.

Old French cuilte, padded-cushion. As a color modifier, quilt implies a hand-quilted-padded-textile quality, the visual register of American-and-English-quilt hand-quilted-and-padded patchwork-and-coverlet hand-quilted-and-padded textile surfaces under American-and-English hand-quilted-and-padded textile workshop-light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to tufted and flock in usage.

The blue of a clear sky at noon — produced by Rayleigh scattering, the preferential dispersion of shorter wavelengths through atmospheric molecules. Air itself is colorless; the color we see is sunlight scattered toward our eyes by every cubic kilometer above. The reference shade is mid-latitude noon under a high pressure system: a clean, slightly green-shifted blue with the luminous depth of light scattered across an entire hemisphere of air.