The relativity of value: it depends on who's next to what

Value changes the look of the Ohio Star block.

The Choo Choo Quilters program that I presented on "Identifying Value in Color" was a blast! One of the members had a scrappy quilt top using the 1000 triangles design for Show and Tell. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect segue into the program.

It's easy to identify value—the lightness or darkness of a color—with paint... you just keep adding drops of black paint to pure white and you can the whole grayscale. In fabrics, with their various prints, patterns and multi-colored motifs, it can be a little more difficult.

Using the wrong side of the fabric to change value.

I took a classic, identifiable quilt block—the Ohio Star—and manipulated the placement of value to change the emphasis. Color placement remained the same: orange background, blue star points and green in the center. See how different the blocks look when the value (not the color) is changed?

Here is an example (right) of using the same fabrics, but using the back side of the orange fabrics to change the value. Remember, when you buy fabrics, you pay for both sides. So, if you need a lighter shade or tint of a color, try flipping the fabric over.

The class exercise was lively and interesting. I requested that attendees bring light, medium and dark fabric swatches to the meeting. The group was split into two teams and each team arranged the same group of fabrics by value from light to dark.

Several guild members used different techniques and devices to aid in identifying the values: wearing sunglasses, squinting, looking through peep holes, camera viewfinders and value finders. At one point, we even turned off the lights. Playing with fabrics in the dark... what fun!

The Results: Below is a comparison of the team results. Both groups identified the same fabrics in the lightest, darkest and medium categories. The "transition" fabrics (from light into medium and medium into dark) were a little less consistent.

Two of the fabrics with large motifs were more difficult to place in the sequence. One had white flowers on a navy background and the other had tan motifs on a dark brown background. It's also interesting to see that the light blue fabric (3rd from the bottom) is in the same location in both groups even though the group on the left has turned this fabric to the wrong side. Hmmm... wonder what that's all about??

Try this exercise using your own fabric or yarn stash. Are there any gaps in your stash's value range?

Identifying Value in Color—bring your sunglasses

In quilting, value—the lightness or darkness of a color—is often more critical to the success of a quilt's design than color. If you've ever seen a scrap quilt with a design that just sparkles, you know that it's all about value. I'll be presenting the program, "Identifying Value in Color," at my quilt guild next Monday, May 16.

My guild, the Choo Choo Quilters, is devoting the 2011 year to the study of design in quilting. We're using Lorraine Torrence's book, Fearless Design for Every Quilter, as our text. 

We'll be doing an exercise on value at the meeting which I think will be fun. I worked last week preparing the program, visuals and a handout. To give you a preview, here is the meeting pre-work:

:: 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 stacks to the meeting.
:: Bring a value finder, reducing glass or peep hole or your sunglasses to the meeting.

These are the leftover bits from my visuals... arranged from dark to light. You're invited to the meeting if you want to play along. Be sure to bring your sunglasses!

The cleaned up View from Here

The clean-up continues. We got all the utilities back this past week. Fallen trees move from yards and driveways to the street.

 Parts of the street are a single lane due to all the debris.

 Can you find the deck?

Thanks to friends and family, we got the yard cleared.
The smoker survived but the picnic table was sacrificed.

The red lilies are a cheerful sight.

ATCs: The view from here

Alas, "The view from here" changed dramatically since last Wednesday when an F2 tornado whaled through Chattanooga. The road from our house was blocked in both directions for a day and a half and power was restored after nearly 5 day, around 9 pm. on Sunday. We patiently await other services--phone, cable and internet--as sthe clean-up continues.

ATC artists responded to the April ATC theme, "The view from here," with these, more uplifting cards:

Here is the view from my studio with three trees across the deck. (The deck is under there... really).