I'm so happy to host April's quilt.
April's Quilt Block is like the 'gimme' question on an exam...the one that everyone in the class will get. And it will hopefully be a fun, easy, and creative few minutes picking fabric, cutting, lining up your HSTs, sewing, cutting and sending off in the mail! Voila, you should be done in less than an hour.
This month we are going to play with value. I'm a beginner quilter, and still learning the ABCs of colour and fabric choice. According to many I've read, a quilt either 'makes it' or 'breaks it' because of the value of the fabrics used, not the colours...so I'm going to make a value quilt to practice this skill...I also love how scrappy they look, and think it will be super creative for me (perhaps less creative for you guys...).
The tutorial that I used to get my idea for this month's quilt is found here.
I'd love if you would send me the equivalent of two 12" blocks of fabric, which translates to 8 HSTs in total.
Fabric choice:
Please make 6" blocks of your favourite fabrics (those that speak you), but try to pick a mix of dark/medium/light, and then pile them into piles according to their value. This is what my piles looked like...
Katie at 'Sew Katie Did' notes that most of us tend to gravitate towards medium fabrics. I think that some in our guilting group probably gravitate more to light and some more to dark, and that is what is so creative about quilting...our personality really does shine through our sewing.
After you've made some piles (in total, you will need 8 blocks of fabric that are 6" square), pair two blocks together, good sides facing, like so:
dark/light, medium/light, or dark/medium
Use the easy sandwich method to turn each pair into 2 HSTs And that's it. Please don't sew the HSTs together into larger blocks, because I am going to move them around based on the configuration of the 'light/dark' combos before I sew the final quilt top together. In total, I'm hoping you will be able to send me the equivalent of two 12" blocks, so 8 HSTs in total.
Here is what my first attempt at the layout looks like (not sewn, just playing with the fabric combinations still), but I'm excited to see how your fabrics help flush out the entire colour spectrum.
April's quilting commitment should be easy to squeeze in somewhere in the busyness of our lives... I'm so excited to see what you send me...
Lots of love,
Katy from Canada
Wow Katy, you will doing a lot of sewing up in the end - this sounds almost too easy on our part.
ReplyDeleteBut as a learner too, I really like the idea of fooling around with colour value.
oooh Katy, I love your quilt idea. It's already got me thinking about and reflecting on my favourite fabrics. What fun, can't wait to make a start! And by the way, I'm liking how the red is shining through in your first sample.
ReplyDeleteHi Katy, I'm always so excited to see the latest project and today is no different. I'm home in New Mexico and want to raid my mom's stash to get started. I will see how many modern fabrics she has to work with. :-) I also love the design already coming through in your example. Now I am going to print off your directions and go off to start playing. Thanks Katy!!
ReplyDeletexoJennifer
I don't know if everyone already knows this trick for sorting values for dark, medium, and light colors but I thought I would share it, just in case.
ReplyDeleteIf you turn the display setting on your camera to black and white and then just start viewing each of your fabrics through the window on your camera, you will quickly and easily be able to sort the three values into their piles.
Jennifer
PS: My mom has some seriously hip and fun fabrics for an 83 year old! I'm impressed! :-)
What you have started looks fantastic! Thanks for a fun project. I am excited to see how a value quilt created by this may people will work. Looking forward to selecting some fabrics for you :)
ReplyDeleteShauna :)