How to Understand Color Value in Quilting

One of the most important factors in quilting that many quilters either don't adequately understand or don't take advantage of in their designs is color value. Color value basically means how light or dark a color is.

Black has the lowest color value while white has the lightest. All the other colors fall somewhere in between. A color like bright yellow would have a light color value, while green would have a medium value and royal purple would have a lower value. Color value can vary within the same color as well. For instance, pale sky blue would have a light color value while deep navy blue would have a darker color value.

Why is color value important in quilting? Color value can be used in quilting to set the "mood" or feeling of your quilt. For instance, if you are going for a soft, subtle effect you would choose colors with similar color values. Or, if you were going for more of an impact you would choose colors that had very different color values thus creating sharp contrast in your quilt.

If you are creating a quilt with a central design it is important to choose color values for the design that are different than the values of the background. For instance, you might choose to do a design with dark values on a light background or vice versa. If the color value of your design is too close to that of the background the design will be lost and won't stand out as much as it should.

It can be helpful before starting a project to sort your fabrics by color value. For instance, you might create a pile for dark, medium and light, or you could even break it down further and include piles for medium-dark, medium-light, etc.

Sometimes differences in color value are obvious, but other times it can be harder to tell whether one color is lighter or darker than another. This is especially true if the colors are very different from each other like bright red and bright green.

There is actually an easy trick that you can do that has been used by artists in all mediums for years to help determine color value. Hit your local craft or hobby store and buy a sheet of transparent red acetate or acrylic. Then lay out your colors next to each other and look at them through the clear red sheet. The red takes away the color and reveals just the value, so some pieces of fabric will look darker and others will look lighter. This is a really easy and effective way to determine color value.

For your next quilting project take some time to think not only about color, but also about color value. When your plan your quilt with the contrast of the colors in mind your projects can turn out beautiful and eye catching every time.