Mysterious Values

Value can be a head-scratcher. Learn how to easily conquer fabric value!

To begin, you'll have to come to terms with the fact that fabric values change, depending on what is next to them. Initially, I was resistant to this idea in my quilt-making journey. 

It’s about more than piles of darks, mediums, and lights. The key is to learn how to measure fabric value for each block.

I learned a valuable (wink) lesson when I stumbled upon the nuances of value when discovering how to use both sides of fabric.

 See My Design Story.

Up to this point in my quilt-making, my method for separating values didn’t account for what those fabrics were next to. I simply separated my stash into Darks, Mediums, and Lights. I just looked at a fabric and declared that is was a dark, medium, or light value and assigned it to it's pile of "like" values. It was a confusing concept and oftentimes just a guess. But once I made my decisions, I went on with my quilt-making without looking back. As I created blocks, I was determined not to stray from my original assessments of the fabric values, even though I was noticing by blocks weren't looking very distinct. As you might guess, things didn't turn out too well. Consequently, two quilts I made from very cool Bonnie Hunter patterns (meaning, they had LOTS of units and blocks) didn't displayed the secondary patterns her designs are known for. What did I do wrong?

Values Change

How can a fabric value change, you ask? While the value of the fabric itself doesn’t physically change, how you see that value is affected by what is near it. Let me explain and then give you a simple way to test your values…

In the photos above you'll see one of three piles of fabrics which were my selections for quilt project. Darks. Mediums. Lights. This should be straight forward, right?

However, when you place, for example, a darker Light and a lighter Medium next to each other, they suddenly look similar in value. The problem is color can make it difficult to determine value. The easy answer: remove color from the equation and compare the fabrics you'll be using side by side.

So how do you remove color from fabrics you are auditioning?

Take black and white photos. I learned this by testing values of both sides of fabric. Each pattern I design that uses both beautiful sides of fabric comes with a detailed guide for auditioning fabrics for that quilt project: Simply lay your block or sections of fabrics side by side, pull out that phone camera and let it do the work for you. Either before or after you take your photo, change your settings (edit) to Mono or Noir. 

Next, observe. Does one fabric looker darker than the other? Do they two fabrics play nicely together? Can you easily tell where one fabric stops and the other one starts? Or do they look too similar? Once you remove the color, you can more precisely decide if your fabrics have differing values. Use your photos, determine your fabric values and pair your block fabrics accordingly.

Don't skip the photos! 

Even after years of auditioning both sides of fabrics, I would sometimes find myself ready to get my fabrics cut for purchase, without having tested them first. Colors can fool you! More than once I had focus fabrics whose RIGHT and REVERSE sides looked identical when I removed the color and looked only at value.

You can confidently choose fabrics for your units, blocks, and quilts using this easy method.

Also, read More on Value.