Value

I am happily playing along with the pink strips from this post. Daughter’s quilt top is finished and parked in the to-be-quilted pile on the big desk. I am trying to get the most out of the creative high I am on, starting one project after the other, sketching a new one while the last is still on the design wall. It feels awesome and only a tad scatter-brain-ish.

The almost all-pink top had to be toned down a little. I had added some dark browns into the mix, but it still was a bit on the hot side, so I started wondering how small I could go with a contrast colour and still get a result.

The answer is a ½” strip (finished). Yes indeed, that little. With this quilt being a present, I cannot show you much, but I recommend that you give it a go the next time you need that little extra touch. Just cut a few 1” strips, and see where they take you. You may be surprised.

My strips had to be sorted by value, and you know how tricky that can be with different colours. Instead of the old copier or camera/computer trick, I used the iPad to determine the values, so I thought I could show you how I did that. My iPad is in Norwegian, but your screens should look pretty much the same. My iPhone has the same options, and I am sure other smartphones have them as well.

Lay your strips or fabrics out in an order that make sense to you. Take two pictures (one will be altered).

Tap one of the photos.

Choose Edit

 

Choose Filters

 

Choose Greys

Choose Use

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Choose Save

 

Now you can flip back and forth between the colour and grey shots. It is much easier to see the values now, right.

Move any fabric that seems out of order, and do the same again to check.

I’d better get down to the dark and musty laundry basement while there’s still some daylight. I have picked up a total of 16,6 meters of fleece today as all my finished and yet-to-be-finished tops need to be made into soft and cuddly quilts, and as fleece shrinks, it needs to be prewashed. And dried. We have no tumble dryer here in our temporary home and it’s raining outside. Yeah, that’s gonna take a while..

Thanks for stopping by!