The Art of Choosing: Light vs. Dark

The Art of Choosing is a series discussing fabric, color, and the fabric selection process! Here's what's been posted so far:

1. Recognizing a Fabric's Overall Color
2. Folding
3. Stash Storage
4. Organizing Your Stash by Color
5. Building a Well Rounded Stash
6. Supplementing a Fabric Line
7. Reader Stashes
8. Building a Scheme Around a Single Fabric
9. Building a Scheme Around a Photograph
This Week: Light vs. Dark

Today we're going to talk about putting together a Light vs. Dark color palette! Quilts made using this type of color palette are generally called Value Quits. I browsed around flickr for some examples:

The Art of Choosing: Light vs. Dark, originally uploaded by jenib320.

1. Values Quilt , 2. log cabin batik top, 3. Value quilt top in Seaside, 4. Value quilt in progress, 5. I Think I Love You, 6. Values quilt all pieced, 7. Cushion, 8. fassett value - example, 9. Purple & Blue Values Quilt

For my examples today, I did three different color palettes. The first is a traditional light and dark rainbow of colors. The second is light and dark fabrics in a single color (in my case purple!). The third is a 2 color palette using light pinks and dark yellows. There are so many different patterns you can achieve with this technique!

1. Light vs. Dark Rainbow

Lights

The Art of Choosing: Light vs. Dark, originally uploaded by jenib320.

When pulling my lights I tried to focus on pastel colored fabrics. Think easter egg and baby colors. This could also include fabrics with light or white backgrounds as long as the accent colors aren't too dark.

Darks

The Art of Choosing: Light vs. Dark, originally uploaded by jenib320.

I had a little trouble with the darks, since I don't have a lot in my stash. Instead it became about finding more saturated colors, which when used with the lights will give the same effect. I avoided all fabrics with light colored backgrounds and tried to stay away from fabrics with large white accents.

Finished Stack

The Art of Choosing: Light vs. Dark, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Here is my finished palette!

These are a few fabrics I choose not to use when pulling my stacks.

The Art of Choosing: Light vs. Dark, originally uploaded by jenib320.

1. Weekends by Erin McMorris - While this is a pastel like color, it is a tad too dark for the lights.
2. Bijoux by Heather Bailey - This is too dark for the lights and too light for the darks!
3. Modern Meadow by Joel Dewberry - This was another in the middle print, not light or dark enough for either pile.
4. Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt - This has a light background but dark accents, doesn't fit well in either pile.
5. Sugar Snap by Melissa Averinos - Too much balance of light and dark colors.
6. Neo Geo - Light background but the accents are too dark!

2. Light vs. Dark Single Color

The Art of Choosing: Light vs. Dark, originally uploaded by jenib320.

For this palette I pulled lots of purple fabrics, separating them into light and dark. I tried to stick to one general shade of purple, in this case red-toned purples. This would be a fun stack for a monochromatic quilt!

3. Light vs. Dark Two Color

The Art of Choosing: Light vs. Dark, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Here I decided to choose two different colors, pulling light pinks and dark yellows. It gives the color palette a nice contrast and really makes the yellow pop.

We're getting close to wrapping up this series! Next week's post will be on Warm vs. Cool. What other types of color palettes would you like to see built here? :)