Value vs Color

What would you do with a luscious collection of 20 Jinny Beyer batik fat quarters?

I mean actually DO, after much petting, arranging, and showing off?

I'm thinking of cutting squares, and inserting strips of the opposite value into each one.

So, as a prelude to cutting into them, I decided to sort the collection into two values: Lighter and Darker. 

Then each pile was sorted to run from the lightest to the darkest.

I thought I was doing pretty well until I got out the red plastic thing to look through...and found I did not have a nice smooth transition of values. 

If you've done this, you know who the trouble-makers are: the brights and the reds! I know there is a green plastic thing to look at the reds, but I don't have one. Heck, I had to do some serious rooting around just to find the red thingie! Usually I just depend on my extremely poor vision, and take off my glasses to squint at a set of fabrics.

I made a few adjustments and came up with these sets. On the right is LIGHTEST at the top and on the left is DARKEST at the top.

Light to dark                                  Dark to light

See how that bright turquoise sticks out? But that's where the red plastic "said" to put it!

Then I remembered my little camera has a setting called "COPY", which really means it changes things to black & white...just values, no colors at all. 

Now I could really see something...like this:

Lights                                      Darks

So my camera agreed that the bright turquoise should be moved up to the lighter fabrics.

But take a look at the bottom fabric on each side...they are exactly the same! Which is how running the values in opposite directions on each stack should come out. A quick glace at the first pic, with the colors, sure does have those 2 looking different! Maybe they are in the wrong stacks?

So I just moved a few pieces around, checking with the camera. Sometimes I even had to put my finger on the piece to be moved, as I looked through the lens. When the color is gone, these guys all look alike!

Here's the new arrangement:

Lights                         Darks

Now that's what I call a nice smooth transition!

So what happens when the color comes back in?

Lights                                    Darks

No wonder everybody gets confused by this stuff!

But that still doesn't mean it is not important. You have to take it like all the other "rules"...don't be set by them, just be guided.

This was a very helpful exercise. 

When I start to cut and sew, I'll take the very lightest one (top left) and put it with the dark that is least dark (bottom right). That will make for a good contrast between each pair.

And If I don't like any two together...I'll change them!

                                                                 

I'd like to say a Big Thank You again to Connie at Stepping Stones in St. Simons Island, GA for sending me these fabulous fabrics...as a thank you for designing her Row by Row Experience pattern....

and leave you with an old Scottish proverb:

When the lights are out, all cats be gray!

The cat is always gray at my house!

Color Mastery by Maria Peagler

Color Mastery: 10 Principles for Creating Stunning Quilts
by Maria Peagler, 2009 Willow Ridge Press



Quilters need to learn about color, and this book makes the subject easy to understand.
Find out for yourself by clicking the link (above) and reading a sample chapter.

There are many color books in my library, written from various perspectives. Maria has written this book in a way that breaks color into easy to understand families and ideas.
I think her most important move was leaving out how colors mix together. That information is what makes this topic so confusing to beginners & fabric lovers, as we really don't mix colors the way painters and lighting artists do.


Starting off with ten basic concepts and ten myths about color, Maria goes on to explain her excellent suggestion of keeping a Color Journal.
The truth is that you really have to get into some fabric and play around with it to learn about color. Reading about it will never do the trick! So why not keep a record of it in your journal? I love to go back over journals I have kept, and I bet you will, too.
NOTE: Journals are only for you! Make a mess, tear a page out, scribble like mad, glue-glue-glue! This is not an assignment you are handing in for a grade! Nobody else has to see it unless you decide to share it.



The book is filled with great color pictures that show you how to use your own fabrics to discover the color schemes you will like best.
A result of working with Color Mastery might be buying some more fabric, but you'll be selecting ones that really work with your existing stash.


One of the biggest problems quilters have with color is that they resist learning how to talk about it. You can tell if you like something or not, but without the right words and ideas, there is no way to describe the problem and understand how to change what you don't like.
Maria does a great job explaining--and showing!--what the color wheel and it's variety of combinations can do.


In the second part of the book, you can start to put your new ideas into action with some simple quilt patterns. There is a pattern for each of the main color "harmonies", but you could make any of them over and over using different colors, intensities and values as you learn what you like and how to make it look even better.


Use Color Mastery as a workbook. You'll already be started on your Color Journal!
And follow Maria's blog and e-newsletter for more insightful (and fun!) ways to make your quilts really show their colors!


So, you'd be asking, "What's with that photo???"
It's my copy of Color Mastery, purchased all on my own. I am reccommending this book because I think it is one you will use and enjoy.
What's that little thing sticking out of the top of the book?
A sticky note, of course, because when you have a really good book, you have to mark it!
And that striped fabric behind the book?
Oh, yes...that's about to be cut up and used for the backing on a quilt I am making for Mrs. Starbucks!


By the way, Color Mastery is published in a beautifully professional manner. You can order it through all the big online booksellers.
If you'd like a group discount for your guild, or to use this book in a class, contact Willow Ridge Press.