CJ, a color question?

[SewCrafty]

Now in the pic below, I hope I'm figuring right. The 'lights' are all on the outside, the 'mediums' are the next set around and the 'darks' are in the middle.

How do you tell what is light vs. medium and medium vs. dark when you are picking out fq's or fabric? Some are obvious but others give me trouble. Like in the fq's I picked for the tutorial, I find I don't have enough lights. I thought some of mine were until I go to make a block and find out they are really medium colors.

Help!

[Heather]

Great question Diana, can't wait to hear!

[homesteadmamma]

First off, colors tend to change wherever they are. In a quilting store, you might see them as light and once you get them outside, they might be medium or the mediums might be dark. Get them into your home, and they'll be different again. For instance, take the color red. Put it under a light, take the same red piece of material and walk outside, then again take that piece of material into a darker room and see how it changes color. (Just what you wanted to hear, right!!)

Also if you put say a med. blue in with a two dark colors, that medium blue would look quite light. Or you could put the same blue in with 2 lights and it would look darker than it actually is.

This is one area that takes a lot of time for most quilters. Its sometimes a guessing game but there are a couple of things you can do.

Go to a quilting store and take out a set of one color. Lets go back to the blues. Take out 5 blues and place them together from light to dark. You'll begin to see quickly which is the light, which is medium and which is the darker. (Thats one way.)

Another way is to get a Value Finder which you can pick up at any quilting store and have the salesperson show you how to use it. I can't say enough about a Color Wheel, which helps tremendously in the color area. Another way is to get a good book on colors and how to pick and choose!!!

Then the other way is to begin to look at other's quilts. When your in quilting stores, look at the quilts there. Which do you really like. Look at how they've used their lights/med./darks. If you can, go to a quilting show and see what others have done in the use of colors. Are there some that really attract you and you can see depth in the quilt. Take pictures if you want and then study them when you get home.

I have to say here that the very best to have in your quilting/sewing area is GOOD lighting. If you don't, you'll always wonder about your shades and if your doing it right!!!

~Lights for me are always creams, whites, and the lightest shades you can get of any one color. When it comes to prints, thats a whole different story but I will usually go with the background color in that print as to where I put it in my block. For instance, if the background is white or cream, then thats usually my light color. If the background is black, dark blue, dark burgundy, then it becomes my dark color.

Dark colors are blacks, burgundies, dark greens, dark reds and when I look at them they have the darkest value in those shades.

Mediums are a bit harder to describe, but when you put a med. color between a light and a dark, you'll begin to recognize the mediums. For instance - I'm doing a block with 3 colors. I'd use a white or cream for the background (or that value), then I'd use a red for med., then a black or dark blue for dark.

In the block you've shown, you've picked the right color values.

A little trick I use - when it comes to lights, I try to purchase those in metre lengths. I have a lot of creams and whites (of different patterns) that I pick up and put aside to use specific to using those for lights. I will sometimes pick up some lights in fqs, but most of the time I have the material already here for the lights. In most blocks, you'll find that you USUALLY need to use a light color for the background, in fact when your doing applique, you ALMOST ALWAYS put the applique work on a full square of material, and that square is usually a light color.

HTH. There are always lots of questions when it comes to color, color values, etc. I have to say that in most always all the questions, it really comes down to practise, practise, practise.

btw - here is another trick I've used. This one really works well and my quilting teacher taught us this. (This also helps you to remember where your going to put what color.) Get yourself a good set of pencil crayons. When you've found a block you like, draw it out and color in with your pencil crayons where you want the light, med. and dark, using your pencil crayons in the different values. Here is where you can really play around. Again, even here, it means practise.


Let me know if this helps and if you have any other questions in regards to this.

[SewCrafty]

Great answer CJ, thanks!

I figured I would have to buy the lights in yards as opposed to fq's. I like the tone on tone choices for those a lot.

I have been really studying the quilt you made me and am amazed at some of your color combinations. I would never have put them together that way and yet they look great! I especially like the tan with tiny dots of different colors. It seems to go with just about every color in the quilt and would be a great filler. I can see where sometimes this one would be a 'light' and other times a 'medium' value.

I also am not a blue person, it just isn't my favorite color. But it really makes that quilt 'pop' and I find I am going to get more blues to add to my stash! I'm also going to start using my stash of reds, I had no idea I had so many!

I definately have the quilting bug!

[homesteadmamma]

Dee, there are colors I seldom use has well and blues are one of them, but I've been really stretching myself in colors over the past year.

When it comes to color, I always like to put in a color I wouldn't normally use and a color that makes the quilt "pop" as you say. I also love putting in surprises.

When I made a sampler quilt for my mom, I put in a little butterfly (appliqued) and she didn't even notice it. But my aunt (who is a fantastic sewer) noticed it right away and showed my mom. When I make the grandkids their quilts, I put in little pockets and told them not to tell their mommy. They put everything in those pockets. (I put the pockets on the outside of course.)

One of my quilting teachers was fantastic at telling us to stretch ourselves and showed us how. In one sampler quilt she had done, in each middle block, in someway, there was a sunflower. At times it was a large one, then other times you could barely see it, but it just made the quilt "pop" as you say.

She was also a teacher who really stretched us in color values and told us NEVER to be afraid to use colors that we would never think go together. When I come to explaining the sashing in my finishing tutorial, I'll give you some hints there has well on how to pull colors from the sashing or vice versa, pulling colors from the quilt for the sashing.

I don't like purples BUT I seen a purple quilt done in 2 colors, purple and whites and it was stunning!! It was a very simple block but the beauty was in the two colors. She then used a very dark purple to finish off the quilt.

[frugalmel]

Oooh! I bet I would love the purple and white one, CJ! Purple is my absolute favorite color. I love picking colors and at the same time I dread it. LOL. It can be both fun and hard. I usually do what CJ said and use light background fabric for my lightest shade.