A little quilt progress
I’ve taken a baby step towards making a Value Quilt by trying to sort my Kimono House samples into three piles.
Wow, that was REALLY difficult! Maybe because of the type of fabric I’m using. I found it really difficult to just sort into light, medium and dark. I wanted to sort by colour, or print style. I hope that I’ve vaguely got it correct – I asked hubby for his opinion (he’s pretty good at that sort of thing) and he thought each pile seemed okay. I should see what Clare reckons! Then I had to put them aside to do a little more work on this.
It’s the Calico and Leftovers quilt, which has been languishing since July last year. It had been waiting for a walking foot and for the maker to increase her self-confidence. Kellie’s tip about using Ansell Hyflex multi-purpose gloves for quilting was a fantastic one – I was astounded at how much easier it was to manouvre the quilt under the machine. It’s now quilted and the binding has been sewn on, folded over and just needs to be hand-stitched in place. My finishing-almost-finished things binge is working very nicely! I can see myself getting ready to cut into these fabrics to finally start on my Mod Sampler Quilt very soon.
When you get to the stage of pairing the squares, the value will become more apparent.
Value is relative. It can appear to change depending on the fabrics that surround it.
I generally put aside what squares I am uncertain of. These you can pair with an obvious darker square, to make a medium or pair them with a lighter square to make them a medium or dark.
Another tip is to look at it from a distance with other squares on a design wall. This will help you determine value.
I haven’t tried this myself … but I would imainge you could check your groupings by photographing the groups and then use some photo editing software to change the picture to black and white.