Of what value is it to you?

The third colour workshop I taught was very much hands on. We talked about light, medium, dark, as well as bright and dull. Colour is the first thing people will notice about a quilt. But without good use of the fabrics' values, none will be able to determine the block design and all the hard work of matching points and seams will be lost in a blur of colours, much like a variegated afghan.

Value is so very subjective. It just depends on the fabric it is playing with.

A single fabric can be light in one block,

medium in a second block

and the dark in a third.

It is helpful to find the medium first. Determine the light and the dark and then fill in the gaps.

Everyone got a medium grey fabric to use as a reference point. Solids or near solids are much easier to place in a line when teaching the eye to discern subtleties.

The colour itself is a distraction so there are ways to eliminate colour. A red coloured piece of cellophane, plastic or glass can do this. Hold the cellophane to the eye and gaze at the fabrics from about 12 inches away. This can be very surprising sometimes.

Photocopying the fabrics on the black and white setting gives a permanent reference. A camera on the black and white setting also is beneficial.

A trip to a paint stores can provide the most useful tool. Find a paint card that has white to black. This is a professional gradient. It is quite helpful for getting a good range of lights, mediums and darks.

For me at least, value is challenging but the more I do the better I get at it.

Back to Hump Day

And here it is Thursday again. Not only is Thursday my hump day where I realize the week is half done but a new month has started and the pastels of summer need putting away and the intense but warm colours of autumn need to have pride of place. And I do need them. It has been especially cold, wet and drab in my corner of the world.

Colour is SO much fun. I realize I've left out a whole lot of options which will probably surface in the future at special times. The grey setting on my camera will see a lot more use as I evaluate value in future quilts and even decorating situations.

I haven't been idle The kitchen has had an auction find addition. Shelves from a meat shop were cleaned. How nice to have a hubby involved who sees the garden hose and a dish brush aren't adequate so gets out the power tools, runs off to buy wire brushes, unites the two and the labour is significantly reduced. Not only was I impressed with the power tools which still took 5 hours but he was impressed with how good the shelves turned out. So the kitchen now has a baking centre! I do like it! Now to get creative and use it!

I do have little piles of coloured accessories stacked all over so the next 2 days should see some major fall cleaning and redecorating. And the bonus is in having the vacuum putting out heat! Time to get the rest of the week done!

Yellow is the colour of...

Daffy's and the less desirable dandelions.

It is also the colour of bad lighting.

The 8th Block of the Month is really nice. It has a nice shadow effect. I fussy cut my two theme fabrics and that took a while. Then I stood back and said, where is my shadow? hmmm. Not the right values so I took away the lighter yellow fabric and replaced it with a medium green. I should have took a picture of the 'not so good'. Sorry. I also finished the block late last night and the photo was ugly with the yellow light. So before I head off to tackle our reforestation project I wanted to post these great colours. There are some really great examples of this block over on 3CS that were more successful with this block. I also learned to press seams open and it worked wonderfully.

The sunshine room will post at coffee break!