Just gathered together the fabric for my next “block of the month” class. Our first assignment was to arrange the fabrics in order of value. Value? Hmmmm, this quilt will be made from recycled men’s shirts, so …. Okay, she meant by color value. Which can be tricky if you are easily distracted (as I am) by bright colors. I see the color contrast, but often fail to take the color value into account resulting in a quilt block that lacks depth (even though it’s waaaay bright).
So what can you do? Take a photo of the fabric and print it in black/white (or put the fabric on a b/w copier). By removing the color distraction, you can get a much better feel for the value. And do a better job of creating the desired contrast or blend.
Below is a photo of my fabrics … most of my fabrics are solids, and therefore fairly easy to assess, but I was surprised at the similarity of the pink and light blue in the center. I can see how this technique could be very useful when dealing with multicolor prints.
