by Sandra | October 1st, 2009
Its All About Value
There are only three words you need to repeat to yourself when selecting fabric for painterly applique. Light, medium and dark. Not only for the applique pieces themselves, but within the individual cut shapes as well. For good contrast, I always think in terms of my value scale.
For high contrast, use step 1 for light, step 5 for medium, and step 10 for a dark. Subtle value changes such as this Clematis fall between step 2 and step 5. Step 5 is the dark, step 4 and 3 are mediums, and step 2 is my light.
This is my "background "brush" work and a good foundation of value is essential for the embellishment details to work when added down the road. (yes this is hand appliqued and NOT fused)
My usual rule of thumb is 2 value steps between my light, medium and dark fabrics. Most quilts I see tend to incorporate only step 5 values resulting in a quilt that is visually “flat” and blah (no pun intended). Value adds visual dimension and depth. When I first started quilting, although I was a professional artist, working with color and fabric was a LOT tougher than painting and value was key for great results with fabric. Sure, I could mix the color I needed with paint, easy peesy, but fabric was definitely far more challenging. A whole other ball game you might say.
Understanding how value works with fabrics is the key to infusing life into your applique. I will continue to work on this sample so you can see step by step how I bring my own special brand of applique to life.
Now back to my never ending computer illustrations.
all content ©2009 Sandra Leichner all rights reserved
Is this the start of a new quilt? Looks lovely.
Just a sample piece Frances.
Oh and this one you will see to the end too! I know it won’t be a big quilt, but you will get the idea of my process.
I needed to stitch on sooooomething! Plus, I didn’t want to bore you all with computer work. Yawn.
Thanks, Sandra. Your blog really brightens my days!
that looks like it is going to be another great creation . I can’t wait to see how it progresses.
I do have a question .
In flowers like your rose in ” chicadee ” how many values would you use if your fabric only allowed a certain amount of changes ? could you use less like two or three ? and do more with shading than color change ?
I don’t know if that makes any sense ! Clear as mud, maybe ?
Sandra – you are just too wonderful to us- going to all this effort to share and teach. I so look forward to your blog every day.
Thank you.
I see the flower is stitched counter clock wise starting at five o’clock. How do you prevent shadowing when the darker pieces are under the lighter ?
The seam allowance that is turned under acts as a lining and so there is no shadowing. I also consistently trim a 3/16″ seam allowance around the entire applique piece, even the part that goes under another applique piece that will overlap. Did that make sense? That way, even the seam allowances line up and there is no shadowing under a light colored fabric from a darker one that is overlapping.
If there is a situation where shadowing would occur, I would then baste down a lining (lightweight interfacing, plain white cotton voile, or reg. cotton) onto the background fabric directly under that applique piece so it would become opaque eliminating that shadowing problem.
A funny story…..
I got nicked in judging for “shadowing” somewhat recently, um…..there was none anywhere. I am obsessive about that and would never allow that on my quilt’s design. You figure that one out.
Thanks Sara! I know how little information is really out there. I know it frustrated me and I figure others are in the same boat. I am so glad it is helpful.
Thank you Sewcalgal!
Sometimes Boop I only use one fabric! One of the reasons I like batiks and tone on tone fabrics is that they contain a wide range of values in one piece of fabric. Look for batiks that have a high contrast of color within them. The ones that look like “oil spots” all over the surface are particularly good. I fussy cut my little heart out.
Be careful of the batiks that read predominately solid though. They can end up “flat” when all is done.
What you are looking for are fabrics that have a real obvious light, medium and dark contrasting color in them. Then you can fussy cut for the right values in one or two pieces of fabric.
I will put that on my list to delve further into for a post. Remind me if I forget. My brain isn’t what it used to be. sigh.
Another tip: Take a digital photo of your work in progress and change the image to grayscale on the computer. You will know instantly if you have good contrast. Your eye will instantly see light medium and dark contrasts or squint and struggle to find detail in the sea of shadow. The camera doesn’t lie.
This is why I do my blog Frances. Thank you.
The digital image tip for determining grayscale is good. Thanks.
Great tip about the use of the camera and grayscale!