Skip to main content

Creating Blocks with Value

Lesson 5 from: Quilting with Low Volume Fabrics

Cheryl Arkison

Creating Blocks with Value

Lesson 5 from: Quilting with Low Volume Fabrics

Cheryl Arkison

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2000+ more >

Lesson Info

5. Creating Blocks with Value

Lesson Info

Creating Blocks with Value

What we're going to do now is we're going to repeat the same block we're doing it exactly the same way as last time except this time when we choose your fabrics I want you to choose it with value in mind, right? So I'm going to just quickly myself pick a couple of fabrics to show you what I mean we've got a big pile of fabrics here that all our student us in the studio have been choosing from I am pick ones that they haven't chosen at all so I can take this one and this one and this one and maybe that blue one raid on top no right next to it yes, there we go okay, so I've grabbed four fabrics if we look at them in pairs right there's not a lot of contrast between these two fabrics there's not a lot of contrast between these two fabrics, but as soon as I put that next to that and that next to that we have high contrast right value and contrast all our relatives so as a send before you can use low volume fabrics and next to a dark or a medium fabric they all seem like light but within th...

e low volume world these when they're all mixed together yeah, I'd say they're all low volume right? We're adding it to all this this is all low volume but relatively speaking next to that and next to that, we have contrast and that's because these prints are denser and because the colors on them our darker were more saturated, right that's how we're getting our value in this so at home and here in the studio we've cut to make a second block. I've put the instructions back up for us for cutting, so I'll just remind you again that's going to be four squares cut five and a half fishes by five and a half inches it's going to be eight squares cut three and a half inches by three and a half inches four rectangles at two and a half by three and a half one rectangle often of the same fabric are these next two story are of the same fabric at two and a half by six and a half and then two squares at two and a half by two and a half and those last two can be from the same fabric if that's what you prefer, right? And we'll just go over the value stuff again here sorry, the cutting stuff this is your two and a half by six and a half or two and a half um square two and a half inch squares here you're five and a half inch square becomes the axe and your three and a half inch squares become the corners of your acts right? One of the interesting things about this block in particular not that you have to use low volume fabrics for it is how you choose your fabrics change is the design of the block entirely, especially when you start combining them with other ones. My personal preference when I make these is to emphasize the plus that's, my favorite part of the block it's the center of it I like to draw the eye in, so I tend to do, you know, a lot of high contrast between the center and these rectangles here, but I've seen lots of quilts made with this where they didn't do that. So then when you start adding quilts together, you get this whole line here that looks very similar, that creates a different look so that they even have a block here and this stashing there so it's a totally different effect, you could do the same thing when you're doing little volume fabrics by playing it up that way, so we're going to go through and so together another block this way I've shown I've cut out fabrics here to do the same thing with a monochromatic blue block this time, so I've picked out my four corners and then my corners for all of them are in this range of blues here I'm just going to make one of the blocks to go over the instructions again draw your line now that you've cut out draw your line across the back of your three and a half inch squares mr really faint quick line to get you to the point where you could be sewing I'm going to do a few so that I can show you that chain piecing trick again even when you're assembling these one more just to show you how it goes ok, so we've got four done there and I will take once again the lid on these four blocks over here back to the sewing machine ok, we'll take the first one line it up remember I don't want to so from the corner I'm sewing to cut off the corner so do you want get my needle in pulled my threads back lower the presser foot and so remember when you're doing this part you're selling on the line that you drew way new chain piecing I get to the end and do it again oh you know what? Look at me I made a mistake what's the difference I've still not the wrong side out and this now a lot of the times that doesn't make a difference I'm going to sew and get that one off and see if it will and may or may not will it look different than the other ones that I have done here? Absolutely but will I still have high contrast right that's my goal so when I opened it up that's what it's going to look like right it's not as high contrast as this one they're right so there's a difference between the two I personally I'm not happy with it, so this would be one of the times I would actually get my scene ripa road I was initially taught to rip my seem this way right toe have it open and pull out my stitches this way and then I was taught a much better way to do it I'm going to show it on this side because it's hard to see no matter what, take your seam ripper and get under your stitches that just cut the whole third pulled the whole thing through but every three or four stitches pull them or break them with your seam ripper so I'm not going from the inside doing it's very easy, especially when we've been sewing on the dagnall like this to stretch out your fabric that way this way if you do it missed every three or four stitches get the needle in there or that the lino the point of the seam ripper and go and then you should be able to pull the fabric apart nothing got stretched and then this just comes off as one full thread so then that's also easier from a cleanup perspective because you don't have little tiny threads everywhere, so let's go back is that still has my line? It doesn't take my line off he's going to so right back over where I was with the fabric the right way and then I can show you that chain stitching chain piecing I should say all the way through because I had done that one already I can do this one now, so even when you're showing on the diagonal like this chain piecing is possible you may just have to lift the presser foot or do a few extra stitches without something in the way there to get that going okay, so there's my chain all joined together in this case, I will cut it apart and then I would so all the remaining pieces down the side but I haven't drawn the line on those yet it might be tempting toe eyeball that line and I will say that out of experience oh yeah, I can do it my my sewing machine hasn't even feed foot, it'll stay straight and and all of that stuff it won't it won't just take ten seconds and draw the line on. You'll be much happier than the completed block will go together better if you do it that way, but so both sides and then cut those corners off again ok, so that was the directions for that and then we'll get to the rectangle part of everything too everybody sos at their own pace, always, and one should never feel pressured to so it's somebody else's, pace way about it before we started with course, right? The dangers of quoting you had the dangers of twelve saying I could show everybody my scars, but if if you're not paying attention to what you're doing, so I started quilting a little back story here. I started quilting when I was a graduate, vince and I had a very boring job reading legislation for consultant, and this was back before, you know, computer programs were written to read that legislation for the consultants. I had to do it myself. And, uh, so I had this really boring job. I started quilting because mine now sister in law announced that she was having a baby who is now a teenager with his driver's license. I thought now is the reason to learn how to quote that always liked fabric and always wanted to do it. And was I felt like I had no reason to do it. I was twenty three years old, and I thought, what, twenty three year old quilts? Well, I've since been proven wrong because there are a lot of great women and men in their twenties and their teens quoting some amazing things anyway, um I was doing it, and I had to pay so much attention to what I was doing and that's why I loved quilting, because if you tried to do too many things that once you frankly hurt yourself so in grad school, paying attention to quilting was an excellent break for my mind. I really had to pay attention to what I was doing in order not to hurt myself, and a couple years later, I learned this lesson the hard way I was sewing in yet another new york open concept lost style sort of basement, and I was standing at the cutting matt and I was going to lock this, so I don't even accidentally do this. But I was standing here and I will is cutting and my boyfriend who's. Now my husband at the time called me from upstairs, and I turned and went, yeah, like that, and I should have stopped cutting, put the the rotary, cut her down and then wait. Yeah, but I didn't, and I so I've learned that lesson the hard way. So if you look closely at my fingertips that not quite the same shape, uh, anymore I have more burns on me than then you can count and those air pretty like minor injuries, relatively speaking, there are a lot some worse things that you could do, but in the interest of not grossing people out, we won't get into them today. Needless to say, though, it's not a it's, not a full contact sport, but it's not without its dangers, not at all, but that's ok, because if it wasn't a little bit exciting and a little bit dangerous, it wouldn't be a fun with it. Closing on the edge exactly. Yeah, we don't need to be like holding in space like that recent astronaut on the space station we can, we can get our excitement and our danger just doing it, and in our home studios, they're so as we continue on today, how are we doing here in the class with this? Are you feeling pretty confident in your fabric selections? You can play around with stuff where I went all varying stages this's where when we start, um, really concentrating and thinking about the fabric, it takes a little bit longer. Andi, you're going to want to play and go back and forth. As I mentioned before, you can always use your camera or your phone. If you're on instagram, for example, you can always post you don't have to post the photo, but they they have a black and white filter. Right, so you could take the picture and then just put it in the filter and then not used not actually post the photo but it's a really quick way to get it. If you don't have any kind of an app that way converted to black and white for you in there, you can also in the quilt shops get filters that just like a red piece of plastic or a green piece of plastic and look at your fabric that way I just don't find them is effective and it's one more thing that you have right, it's one more notion to keep track of and I'm not huge notion person myself and I find that it's very easy if you are a big notion person to get lost in the notions right that you just get buried in them and then you don't use thumb and it's kind of like I I cook a lot love to cook and when you're in the kitchen, if there's something that you can only use for one purpose, I don't want it in my kitchen, I live in a small house um I don't need a lot of extra things around I would generally call them crop, I don't need them and so if I'm in the sewing room, I don't want something that's generally good for one thing, even the lowly little seam ripper right? I don't use them often, but they don't just serve a seam ripping purpose. I will use them when I'm sewing and I'm trying getting close to the presser foot and I don't want to stick my finger close to the presser foot I can hold on to it with the point of the seam ripper I can use it very carefully to turnout corners on something that I'm sewing. So there's, always a you know, a multipurpose tool, I guess the only exception, not the only exception, but a big exception with your rotary cutter. It cuts that's. All it does is it cuts and it cuts very well, but you use it constantly. So it's just like having a good knife in the kitchen don't scrimp out on this and when we're talking safety on it, never ever leave. If you don't have a rotary cutter, mine automatically closes, I have to pull the trigger to get it in. You don't have something like that never leave it engaged or open when I'm teaching in a classroom setting, I probably spend ten percent of my time wandering around the room and closing people's rotary cutters because this goes back to the danger they can hurt you if they fall on the ground. Or your foot where they get bumped and hit your hip or something like that so safety first let's not be too dangerous and if it has a lock I've got kids that's the reason I've chosen this one I have three small kids at home who come into my sewing room so I am very much in the habit is I cut close it lock it right and I can do it all with one hand and so that way if I get distracted and I haven't put the things away I know that they can't do anything to themselves because that's not opening and hurting them so is your public service announcement all right got varying degrees of things there is she's gone not quite low volume though is some of that but that's ok that's all right what's not over I think these prints right with this dark blue because it's white on a dark blue background white back kind of yeah there you go one way to think about it there's no right or wrong right there's absolutely no right or wrong for now right okay yeah and some gray wonderful the gray looks beautiful but I'm missing a piece uh I'm not I don't know I think I am I'm missing which e mails to cut something I think you need your two and a half by three and a half inch rectangles what I need yeah it's this part of the block right. Right there. Okay. That's, what? You're needing two and a half by three now. Okay, right. So I'm going to use your example here. This is what tracy has cut. Oh, tsh for that center section, right? So that's, your eyes really drawn to that because he had that really saturated. I like the sort of red color s o the ways that you can accentuate that ours if you picked a print that has some red in it, right? I'm just going to show this one has just a little bit of red, right? It kind of draws it out or the rest of your stuff is gray. And so if you continue on with gray but if you really want this to pop even mohr not just because of the color, make sure it's a very subtle print, okay? Because this is a very flouncy swoopy, but yet it's not a consistent high density all over print because the scale of the print is much larger. So you do end up with big areas of white, so you want if you pick a print like this, that will show more because of the density of it, right, right. Just curious. Why did you pick the red I don't know, I just I was just wrong to it. I know I didn't want popped out yeah just popped at me isn't coming only asking because earlier you're like I don't think I could do anything right I know I really print those yeah pick me pick me but it's a little volume so whispered it went aee I but I can see there's a lot of you know the background color is lighter so I can see how it would be a little valium but still people get hung up andi I've heard this quite a bit that that low volume on ly means like grey's and beiges and sort of toby kind of colors and that seles and the exercise we're going to do after this we're going to talk about that a little bit more but they think is that they forget that low volume is color right? It really is color s so much so that I'm actually gonna pull the fabric that our students have been using here in the studio onto the table here so that you guys can see the range that they're working with give me two seconds I'm going to do it in big being clumps lots of dark fabrics here too but they're working on the table well, we've got all our fabric so here it's all good, right? You're starting to see big changes just like I'm not doing it too pretty here for you you're starting to see a big range of what what qualifies here as little volume and it really is in some regards, anything goes. So what are some of the patterns that you see yourself doing kind of when you go out store and are looking for for new fabric or it's just kind of like the mood that you're in our, like the patterns on the right if you're going to the story just kind of know what I'm generally drawn personally to geometric prince, I find them, um, just just more appealing to me because I'm not a flowery clancy kind of person, not very feminine in my nature. S o I tend to be drawn to the geometrics, you know, like these ones, right and stripes and dogs and things like that, I tend to like that sort of thing. I also tend even within the low volume world to be drawn to the more intense colors there, but that's me because I love the color, but that being said, I've these air all my fabrics that I've bought because I liked him and there's a full range in here, we have lot geometrics, we have florals in there, we have little ditzy prince don't hesitate to go anywhere in the store and to look on that online stores of great because a lot of the online stores you can search by color, and they'll include low volume as a color so that you can just search by low volume, a lot of stores sell bundles and they'll sell low volume bundles. Now, again, different definitions in terms of, you know what this person thinks is a little volume versus what this person thinks as a low volume, but as you can see with what we've got here on the table, there is so much variation in in what is here on dh you know, whether that's black and white, some of these have a very beige background, this one's almost a yellow background as opposed to the pure whites, right that's got a more of a pier white background next to it, same with that, right? The scale of the print varies in in all of that, and sometimes you have these prints, which tracy used in the first time, and you saw it in one of my blocks where there's more color than white to them, but they're very light and they're very pale right next to something like that, they read dark this is that value lesson, right? Is it's all relative even next to something like this, which has a ah high density print? You know, they're reading a little bit darker because they've got more darkness to it here let's take trying to find a a blue here, this black from weight, even right now, I have three different values, a light medium in the dark and all of those right, so we've got lots of opportunity to play and to go with these different things. Um, so don't hesitate if you don't have the right fabric at home to go by it. We all don't have infinite budget it's, but you can also swap with people low volume fabrics are great one to swap because you may have something that nobody else can get on. Go with it that way on there. So how are we doing to get now to sewing over there? We had lots of deliberation over our fabric choices over there and that's okay, I have my sister in law is a quilter as well. I taught her out a quote, which was another family story, my husband as so he's a cz long as I've known him, I've been a quilter, so he only ever knows me as a quilter. And when someone's like, oh, wow, you quilt I'd love to learn how to quilt we could be at a party, a gathering of any sort, and I swear you can, like, hear those words. And he goes running through the crowd and he's like it's like parting the red sea like and he's pushing everyone aside in slow motion, screaming, oh, I think he comes over and people are like, why woods? You know, like, isn't it awesome that you live with a quilter? Like how cool is that? And did a like I would love to learn how to quote he's like don't do it, don't do it! Why I like it's awesome and you have all these quotes in your house and so creative and it's fun and everything and then he will go don't let them start quilting because it's just like crack cocaine because it's just it's, expensive and it's justice addict and when you really get into quilting, it can be that bad. Um for me now it's a compulsion I have two so every day otherwise I I get antsy um and it's not so at least play with fabric. Look at a blawg admires some pictures on instagram, pet my fabric something I have to be involved with it somehow or else it just gets to me. Um, I have three kids. Did I mention that your daughter, your oldest, enjoy any kind of signers, she totally against it because you do so much of it? No, they do enjoy it might've taught my girls recently so my girls are eight and six currently and this past summer I taught them how to use sewing machine on their own so they used tio from the time they're basically to we would do things like playing red light green light oh right they would push the foot pedal and I would just say right by green light I'd have them sit on my lap and help me guide fabric in things like that but this past summer I got them to actually sit on he knows okay, this is how you do it on go from there and so they're they're not always this cane like you have remembered a work at the pace of children they don't always have the attention span right to do it but my middle child the six year old is when she was in kindergarten we had the afternoons together where it was just us and so she loves the idea of playing on the design wall. She just wants to put things on the design while so I cut out a whole bunch of squares she picked the fabrics you know what? My stash grabbed random fabrics it was a combination I did not want anything to do with, but she loved him and I just gave cuddle the squares letter go to town on the design will and she put it on the design wall and then she sat on my lap for most of it while we piece to the quilt top together she picked my thread for how to quilt that she told me how she wanted it quilted she picked the binding like she did all that so that is her first quilt as she calls it and we have another quote that we've made with triangles as well because I was squares and then she picked triangles she thinks she's going through all the shapes just like rectangles and circles and like she's she's got it down so I've done triangle lt's but we recently got her a new bed and it's a double bed and the quote that we finished in triangles not the size for a double bed and she really wants tone or bed so while I generally don't put borders on quilts, we need to put a border on it no she just picked a fabric that she wanted for the border because it was big enough to cover the top of the quilt so it's just the overhang I'm on the side I could not convince her to pick the same fabric that she already had on the auto triangle so what can you do? What can you do ok so we have one finished block now the one almost finished nice wow here's karen's blog's really can right, I would personally argue that this is low volume, and this is low volume these not so much yeah, and that's partly my fault because we had more than low volume fabrics to choose from, okay, but it still works very effectively. And if we put it up, this is why I wanted to keep your blocks from before it actually works quite nicely with your previous block. I really like the, uh, how they crossed it out, and so I kind of did the same made up that same section, the lightest, exactly, and yours because you've chosen the darker fabrics here as well, you're getting this secondary design that doesn't. Papa is much here, right? Like this becomes more of a feature right in yours. So again, no right or wrong way to do this right with this block, at least in particular. I'm not. I don't actually don't gravitate towards modern fabrics. Yeah, such means sort of it's an exercise and how to use the modern patrick's. Exactly. But not all of these would be considered modern. This father, for example, which I used in one of those. I got this in a guild swap. I actually remember something with a very similar fabric when I was a little girl. Right that's how old this design is? We've got some more here like this is again I wouldn't it's text but it's got this graphic nature I'm going to be this was a little bit of an exercising that the graft using really graphic high you know we're in the printing of the small scale they all have that high contrast versions I would call traditional fabrics but but the tone you're in use more of a tone on tone and things so that even your print is similar to what is the background of the fabric the more of a blend in more of a smooth transition exactly and modern quilting definitely has a high contrast whether using light or dark ce you see the high contrast fabrics yeah, she's still make a very modern quelled and use it war contemporary fabrics you know I mean it's just sort of its fabric and definitions of hillary right it's so hard to say, oh, this is versus that and everything's could jump through on the instructions everybody's past this point they're getting tio assembly there on that, but yeah, the fabrics like that's one of the great things about low volume is that it really is thiss new way of of kind of thinking of fabrics because we didn't see a lot of these before they were there right like right like that prince you know this is very reminiscent of the thirties feed zack kind of print they were all there we just didn't think of using them together, right? Right or or using them in a different way on dh now there's even more to choose from absolutely along the way so we've almost got tracy's block soon as she presses it we'll add that to our mix was making going over there coming together once you choose the fabrics and get going it's not you know difficult block to make that's for sure there we go there's tracy's block so what do you think, tracy? Now that you see it from far, it does to me anyway and you know what that probably is is this density of the print is drawing your I see that right over there others me it really bothers me. What I'm noticing is that these also stand out right like this is this is a higher um because the print is darker and even though it's sparser yeah it's as opposed to those receding into the background there jumping out much like they d'oh in karen's blocks right again not a problem it's a design choice that that you are going to want to make in there and but it's a really good point about this when you take a print like this or see of using same idea here where it's a larger scale print excuse me, a larger scale print you can cut it up and use it fantastically, but what it does is it moves your eye around totally kind of thing, right there is another, I think. Yeah, it's the same in this block that michelle used thiss particular print right? Sorry, your eye moves around quite a bit when you're using that print on dh, then there's parts of it, you'll see it in this quilt here. I've used it where you don't get much of the print at all let's see if I can find some right there this piece right here where you don't see much of the print it all so next to the higher dense the prince, right that's like a really it's a place of rest in the hole quilts there. So there is a lot to think about when when you're choosing low volume prince, it is in the matter of just throwing a bunch of scraps together looks awesome, but it's in yeah, but but it looks it has a different impact right far away because of close it didn't look like that to me, but you know this far away I can see it and it totally yeah, but this is why this is a great block to play with that and to really learn some of those lessons in your bonus materials with those all the triangles that we've cut off that's, what we talk about, too, is how to take those triangles and play with it to get secondary designs on everything with that, too, because you can use those and there another way to get that lesson of playing with value and the lights and the darks, and you'll have more selection because you've made it from a bunch of different fabrics, so you don't have to do the same pairings, right? That we're here. Have you made a black and white? Well, that one there I know you showed us earlier. You have made a quote out of that blood of just this kind of stuff? No, I never have actually, that's the closest I've gotten is that black and white, but I got really excited when I made these blocks when you made your first one. Was that really your first one that you made the one in the end on the left? Absolutely. Yep. And so you said you looked at that and you said that's, not what I wanted to look like or did you? I looked at it, went the block looks fine, it's constructed well and everything but there's, no contrast, I don't see the x plus pattern from back in, it can hardly I mean I don't know he just looks like a scrapping well I mean does back here the next one next to it you can you start to see the design right? And then this one it's very very obvious yeah that one's perfect right? And if you're going to go through excuse me here if you're going to go through the effort of cutting your fabric apart and piecing it back together it is worth making sure you have the contrast right? They're right because otherwise you might as well have done plain patchwork where there is no design to the quilter to the block that you're doing with it if you're ever making a quote whether using low volume or not and you you're making blocks and you get everything and then you like whether you put it on the design wall or the bed or something like that you take a step back and you look at it and it's not working and you can't figure out why it's not working it is likely the value contrast that is the problem is that you're not getting enough contrast between the different components of your piecing right so that's what happened in this did all that paid piecing but there's no contrast in the components sometimes you want that sometimes that is your goal it is your intention toe have low contrast in the piecing but if you're going to go through all that effort why not have the contrast in here? I'm going to put up two other blocks so we've gone away in these two blocks from the monochromatic look and just done it random but again still low volume that way still low volume totally random right? This the ex doesn't stand out now I've got these pieces that are darker, you know that they're coming in volumes sometimes they're not total aside, this is a scrap from my very first quilt I ever made. Really? Yeah, I still have that scrap is I think I like this was their meeting one piece left in this crap in those random aside eso some of the areas we have high contrast some we don't write this is one has some of the same fabrics in it, but I've chosen them now tohave a high contrast ray totally different blocks right? Zack seen design of the block but they are so much this is so much more effective for showing off the design of the block but it's still all low volume fabric, right? So you get that because I've chosen denser prince for their and sparser prince for these background, I've chosen this slightly darker gray with a with a where the background is gray with the white print on it as opposed to this much lighter one for here, so again things pop out more because of this doesn't mean this is wrong if that's what I intended but it wasn't what I intended so I remade it looking like this and show you another block although volume prince oh but now I've gone more controlled in the color scheme so it's not monochromatic using just one colors I've used this analogous color scheme of the turquoise and orange it was very popular for a number of years but again low volume prince right you can see all those prints in the pile here they're all here I got my oranges my turquoise is they're all there but I've chosen them very deliberately here to show things off so my ex or my pluses in orange of my axes and turquoise but because of the way I've chosen the prince I'm getting ah higher density this one see that's a little bit more subtle it's not a strong is that that's because the texture of these two prints this is from the these two prints right here and right here from the exact same fabric line summer somerville yeah came out a few years ago over there from the exact same line this one too so that means these air all the exact same color right but I'm getting very different texture because of the scale I've got darker brush strokes they're versus the spiral lee but there's still much more dense versus this hatch which reads later yes karen the turquoise fabric on the left upper yeah, that one that's he doesn't see a very low volume if I compared to my way we've decided sort of ruling this is not love all you and this is not a low volume and where does low volume end in the low to medium to high? I think that's a very valid question because that's what I'm struggling with a little bit yeah and even the orange on the uae it is quite strong and or I I can necessarily disagree with you I think this is a matter of perspective and relativity, right? So this print reads very dense as does this there's there's been big pieces of color in it? I guess is the best way to say it that print in this prints are identical right on dh so they may not fall in that low volume world to some people right on time. Okay with yeah, no, I'm five I don't think these ones air low volume because the proportion of white ok there is a much smaller right in this print if we were to break it out there's probably still more white than there is of the color right? If you were able to actually break down how much of isn't how much area print it's just that the areas of color are much more bold there's a saturated there it's more saturated color absolutely and there's bigger chunks of it okay right then in this print or in this print even though they're the exact same turquoise right right right where is in this there's far more blue then there is white and the same with this one there's that lighter blue but compared to the white it still reads much much darker so these don't fall in a low volume world this is and if he it's a matter of perspective if you were making if you want to make a low volume quote and you don't feel this is low volume don't use it right I'm not going to police you no one else is doing police we understand the theory and say does that makes sense yeah now helps okay so this is what I meant earlier when I said people say that color you really can't have a lot of color with low volume and I don't agree with that I think you can have a lot of color it's just how you use it in there so let's put up these other two blocks that we finished and see how we're doing on the success for that okay so there we go so let's talk about the pink one first what do we really notice when we look at that plus yeah absolutely and it's because we've chosen that it's a much more saturated print compared to what's beside it right and it's a denser print to it and then on the exes this is a denser print compared toe the corners on its you still get quite a strong design and let's, just put it up next to your original pink one to compare right, sees the same pink for the plus. But this is a much more effective looking block for seeing the whole design of the quilt, right? If you wanted to say, for example, continue that just looking at this quadrant with that pink, which is almost identical to this pink then and you had done that. Then you would have had a very different block again, still effective as long as you had the lighter on there. But it would have been the ex would have been is equally prominent as the plus. Yeah, using that. And I pulled it out for that very reason. Yeah, um, because you wanted to cross that. I wanted across to stand out less, you know? Yeah, great. Okay, so now we'll look at michelle's. She made a point of directional with the fabric, so I will too. Look at that. What do we notice in yours? No. Put your other one x marks the spot. I think what you've done in that one is exactly what we said about the pink, right? You have the x and the plus kind of not fighting for attention, but they both jump out. So you see that a lot. You've done a good job and having the contrast in the like, within the exit section and within the plus section. But there's, not a lot of contrast between the ex and the plus, right? So it's a different look right then, then on this one to right, I think they both work quite well, but you can see how. So even with low volume, he got to spend some time and pay attention to figuring that kind of stuff out.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Cheryl Arkison - Low Volume Basics - Tools.pdf
Cheryl Arkison - Low Volume Basics Bonus.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

Sondra
 

Cheryl is an excellent instructor. Great clear explanations and demonstrations throughout the workshop. I also love her humor and non-judgmental approach. I very much appreciated her "value" explanation, since this can be very confusing. Cheryl also provided great tips and suggestions. This was a great experience for me. I signed up for all of her workshops and look forward to each of them. Thanks very much.

a Creativelive Student
 

Takes a bit to catch on as the progression develops from monochromatic, through the light, dark and medium values to backgrounds but then the click happens and wow! I also have gotten a much better understanding of value which is my own personal nemesis. I'm excited to play.

Beth Conkwright
 

I've already made a quilt top with low volume fabrics. You really changed my idea that quilts had to have a ton of color. I want to try using low volume for background fabric next. Thanks for such a fun class.

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES