Value in Quilts
Kathie Kerler 
You may have heard the saying, "Color gets all the credit. Value does all the work." This is my first post of several showing you why this is true.
This is the first quilt I made. It was 1988. The pattern is from a book called Holiday Happenings by Christal Carter, featuring log cabin designs. I give her credit, because she explained the importance of using a range of values to make the quilt visually interesting.
I took her advice to heart. I selected blues for the sky background, which made logical sense to me, and black for the lamb's legs and features. But I had not considered the value placement.
Notice the small black print for the legs is up against the dark navy print in the sky. Possibly worse, is the two navy logs under the lamb's tummy. By the time I realized the problem, it was too late. I wasn't interested in unstitching or buying more fabric. It was a learning lesson.
After judging since 2002, I frequently see this is a lesson many quilters could learn from. Value is something I emphasize in my on-demand, self-paced course, Quilt Judging, whether a quilter wants to judge or not.
Categories: : Elements of Design