Originally Posted by rryder

In addition to hue(color) and intensity(brightness, purity of hue) you also need to think about value(darkness or lightness) of the fabrics going into your quilt. Some quilt patterns really need lots of contrast in value to show up well, others not so much. When I’m contemplating fabrics for a quilt I lay them all out together and take a picture with my cell phone camera and switch the photo into black and white, that way it’s easy to see the relative value of the fabrics to one another.

I’ve tried using a door viewer for quilts in progress, but since I like to play with arrangement of blocks to develop secondary patterns I prefer to take photos with my cell phone camera to help me remember various arrangements. If you step back a little from your quilt when taking your picture, you will get a photo that gives the effect of distance.

Rob