Another change in direction – 2016.05.04

I hate it when I forget to follow my own advice!

In all my workshop handouts, the final section is about Selecting fabrics.  This is what it says:

• Value is more important than color – if all your fabrics are the same value, from a distance your design will be almost invisible.  You need a wide range of light to dark fabrics for an effective design – unless you’re going for a low volume look, in which case you want similar values.
• Pin your fabrics to a design wall and view them from a distance to ensure you have good value differences
• Optional – take a photo of your fabrics on the design wall, and convert it to black & white.  This will show the difference in your values.
• Use the design wall to evaluate your decisions re value, color, composition
• Make all design decisions before starting construction [Now is the time to experiment with different fabric choices; it’s much easier to change a fabric now than after you have started fusing and/or sewing.] 

I’m not sure why, but with my two recent attempts with the Riley Blake solids, I totally forgot to pay attention to value.

Jessica made a great suggestion on my last post, which I will definitely consider. “Maybe the problem is that they’re just too thin after sewing, so the graphic effect of the black & white is getting lost? What would happen if you used somewhat wider strips, and maybe sewed some of them together, but offset to break apart the original pattern? Would that go somewhere interesting?”

But I’m putting this whole project away for now.  I’ll let my subconscious work on it, and maybe I’ll come up with a workable concept before the May 31 deadline.

Right now, I’m going to start a new project with lots of value contrast.  It will be the fourth quilt in my current Tree Series.   The theme is a forest fire.  (The timing seems a little weird given the Fort McMurray wildfire, but it’s a theme I’ve been planning for at least a year.)

Here are some of the fabrics I’ve picked out.  I think I have enough value contrast, but you can bet I’ll be following all of my own advice as I put this one together!

Thanks for stopping by.  Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative projects to inspire you.