Value in Colors - It's all Relative

At our May 16th meeting, we had an eye-opening exercise in which two teams tried to organize a couple of dozen fabrics according to value. What it taught us is that value is not always an absolute - it can depend on the light in the room, sometimes the scale of a pattern, perhaps the fabric with which you choose to compare it, and often the person who views the fabric. Even so, the two teams organized their fabrics fairly similarly.
















We were also shown how value can change by changing the density of a thread, a shown below. These were all done on a sewing machine with a single thread.

One of our Fearless Leaders of the program, Veronica, also put together 11 quilt blocks of the same pattern but with fabrics of different values, showing how they look completely different using different values, and how holding them beside each other also gives a different result in how the block appears.

As a side note, she was wearing a fabulous lime green vest that she knitted as part of the knitting class she teaches.
Last but not least, Julie, who is new to the guild, created a beautiful wall quilt that perfectly exemplifies the importance of value in making an appealing quilt.

Identifying Value in Color—bring your sunglasses

Dark to light
gradations in Value

In quilting, value—the lightness or darkness of a color—is often more critical to the success of a quilt's design than color. A prime example of this is a scrap quilt. When the pattern or design of a scrap quilt makes you stand back and say "Wow!" you know it's the choice and placement of value at work.

The program for the Choo Choo Quilters May 16 guild meeting is "Identifying Value in Color." You can read Chapter 4 in the "Fearless Design for Every Quilter" book and prepare the following for the meeting:

• Choose 1 light fabric, 1 medium fabric and 1 dark fabric.
• From each fabric, cut four 4” x 5” rectangles.
• Pin the rectangles together into 6 pairs, keeping the same fabrics together.
• Make two stacks with a light, a medium, and a dark pair in each (two stacks with 6 fabric pieces in each). Bring these fabric stacks to the meeting.
• Bring a value finder, reducing glass, peep hole (if you have one) or your sunglasses to the meeting.

The meeting starts at 6:30 pm. Refreshments are available and visitors are welcome to attend.