Contrast is Key
Understanding contrast is the one element that will make your quilt design pop. Contrast clarifies the design and makes depth apparent.
Many quilt patterns list the fabrics needed for a project in terms of their contrast (also called values)--light, medium, or dark. Learning to see fabrics in these contrast categories can enhance your fabric-selection success.
To understand how contrast works, look at this image. Without the contrast between the gold and the green pieces, the diamonds in this Tumbling Blocks design would blend together and the design would appear flat.
The same block takes on new dimensions when the fabrics--a dark purple, medium green, and light yellow--have more contrast than the fabrics used in the first block.
Contrast, however, is a relative concept. This block uses a medium-value purple for the center star and a darker purple for the background. Because the difference between the medium and dark values is not great, the contrast in the resulting block is average.
When the same medium-value purple is paired with a light purple background fabric, the resulting block has a high contrast because the difference in purple values is greater.
Continued on Page 2: Lessons from Projects
More to check out:
Green Pinwheels
Four-Square Pillow
Dotty Stars |
