The Quilter’s Field Guide to Color Blog Hop

Can I just start with playing with color isn’t my thing? I mean, I have my colors and I like to stick to them, sometimes I venture out, but I always end up back at pink, white, aqua, with a little gray or navy thrown in there, always! So, imagine my delight when my accidental choosing of the Value exercise in The Quilter’s Field Guide to Color by Rachel Hauser of Stitched in Color taught me so much about how to add depth to my projects even if I stick to my usual colors.

Rachel discusses the different color value within a color range, and a black and white photo shows how different values of the same color can create movement and interest. The book comes with color swatches and I had fun sorting through them and then choosing some value gradients of my favorites.

I loved learning how the value of a color changes based on the other colors used with it. By swapping out the darkest blue for a lighter one, suddenly my medium blue is the dark value. Just for fun I converted my Posey Supply Case pattern cover to black and white to take a look at the value of the colors I used. In color they all look light and bright, but in b&w there is more depth than I thought I’d find (maybe not much dark, but it’s there!).

I sorted through my blue scrap box and made one bear paw block from the book. I was having a hard time finding medium blue until I realized that the lightest colors I keep sorted in a different scrap box. I found a light blue in the low volume box, and suddenly everything I considered light blue turned to medium – a perfect example of how working with value works!

I hope you’ll visit the other quilters and look at what they’ve shared. This really is a fun book with useful exercises and I’m now excited to go through more of the exercises to help me understand even my favorite colors better. And, Rachel is spending the next several months working through her book, so I’ll be following along and I hope you will to!