Big Ocean Sew Along Fabric Prep: Assessing Values in Your Color Palette
Welcome back for our second week of fabric prep for the Big Ocean Sew Along! If you’re just joining us, check out last week’s post on choosing your color palette. If you enjoyed that post, and you’d like more guidance on choosing a color palette for any of your quilts, be sure to check out my video course, Creating Color Palettes.
Now that you have a palette large enough to make your Big Ocean quilt, It’s time to assess the values of the fabrics you’ve chosen. Reorganize your fabrics by value - dark, medium, and light, and see how that looks. One great way to assess the values in your color palette is to take a black and white photo of it. If you want your quilt to skew light, be sure you have more light values. If you want your quilt to skew medium or dark, be sure to include more medium or dark fabrics. To make a Big Ocean quilt with balanced value, try to include close to the same number of light, medium, and dark fabrics.
To edit your values, you’ll need to revisit color. If you have too many light fabrics, take a look at two fabrics that are close in value and ask yourself, do I need both of these colors? You may want the subtle variation in your quilt, so the answer may be yes. Or you might be willing to part with one of them to get that value balance that you want.
As you start to play with your colors to adjust for value, be sure to audition similar colors that may be closer to the values you’re looking for. Maybe a particular hue works better with one of your new fabrics, or needs to be pulled out because it no longer works. The editing process will happen as we continue through the entire process of making the top, right up until we do our final piecing.
Once you’re happy with the values you have for your Big Ocean color palette, set your fabrics aside, including the ones you edited out. You’re ready to sit with them for a bit, and prepare to start cutting and designing your Big Ocean quilt.
If you’d like more from me on using value as a tool for designing your quilts, check out my on demand course, Value Creates The Design. And if you’d like much more detailed instruction on designing and creating your Big Ocean quilt, my Big Ocean on demand course has everything you’re looking for.
Be sure to join me next week for the official Big Ocean Sew Along kick off! We’ll get together on Zoom at 4pm PST to talk about your color palettes and have some fun discussing what’s planned for the sew along. Sign up for the sew along newsletter here for the Zoom link and all the other sew along content.
