I am on again for another ride. #18 is one block from finished and I am ready for a new adventure. (I went to my retreat with one 5.5 in square of fabric short! Rats. Will finish next week-end. Before #19 starts Part II.:thumbup:)

Ok, I'm going to hop on this train!
This is my first train ride and I am very excited.
What do you think of these colors?
[ATTACH=CONFIG]592545[/ATTACH]

Momtomoandjo - I have read (somewhere on this board), that if you take a picture of your fabrics in black and white, you will be able to see the values of each fabric and decide if its a light, medium, or dark. I have found that some bright colors actually have a dark value. Also, some fabrics I think are light, are actually medium value when I see it against my other fabrics in a black and white photo. Hope this makes sense. :)

I've got to check out my stash.

D, I saw this tip on a knitting show for mixing yarn of different color value. I’ve now used it for my quilting fabric, too. I’m separating left-over strips from various projects into light & dark, & have used the black & white feature on my phone for this. It does help, surprisingly. I think we can be mislead by color, sometimes, so removing that distraction assists in categorization.

I am totally in love with these fabrics. I can't wait to see this one. I have already designed another one in my head with these, have to look around for something like them.

I’m gong to join this mystery train. I only hope I have enough stash so I don’t have to shop for more fabric. I’ve already spent $$ on fabric this month to finish 1 quilt & start another. I did get some ‘extra’ of those (end of bolt remnants) so I may have enough light fabric.

I spent time yesterday pulling out from my non-scrap fabrics, so I'd have enough to go larger.

I ended up leaving out a lot that was too "in between" so that my dark, mid and light were distinct.

sort of like take everything and lay it out in order light to dark, then removed 2-3 "in between" fabrics so that when you jump from one group to the next, there is no doubt that the dark would look wrong with the darker of the mid group, and vise versa.

So my darks are all more burgundy, my mids are all more bright reds, and my lights are coral/dusty rose/pink shades. I've done enough quilts using color groups instead of constants, and I know that it's easy to get the pattern muddled if you don't have enough distinction between groups. For most of the BH mysteries, she gets around this by using different colors, so you won't mix up a red with a blue, no matter how dark or light you go.

This is an example of a quilt that used red, pink and white. And even with this, there are a few places where the fabric didn't read quite correct for the pattern. I even ripped out several of one fabric as when it was sewn in, it ended up too "in between" and muddled the pattern.

BTW - this quilt was designed by Rhonda

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps6e043a91.jpg

Great hits for color sorting. Thanks D.Henson and Macybaby.

Cathy that's a beautiful quilt.

here's some more tricks for value sorting.
1. Lay pieces of the fabric on the copier in the order you think they go. A black/white copy will help. If you can't decide where a fabric fits, save it for another project.
2. In very low light, the colors disappear and only the grey scale shows up. This makes it easier to sort value.
3. Place fabrics in the order you think they go. Use a minimizing (oposite of magnify) glass OR the peep hole for a door to view them.

It'd like to agree with the comment, if there is no distinct change in value, the pattern will be lost. Save those transtion values for another project.

Fabrics that have distinct value changes within themselves (black with white dots) will draw the eye no matter where they fit. Best to save them for another project.

Thanks for the tips. I have heard the one about taking a black and white pic to help. I have chosen some colors that I think will work. Choice 1[ATTACH=CONFIG]592709[/ATTACH]

Choice 2[ATTACH=CONFIG]592710[/ATTACH] My DH thinks choice 2 is the better choice. I want to use the black as the background but I can change it to a dark gray.

Sorry the pictures are so large. I need to figure out how to resize my pictures.

Mom pretty fabrics. I love the blues.

I'll be watching and writing down the clues since I cannot join the train ride this trip. Finishing a big project then will be gone for a month....without my sewing machine.....yikes!!! Enjoy the ride cuz I know it will be fabulous!! Judy rocks it!

i love the fabrics selected so far.

I am going scrappy but have my scraps sorted into dark med and light. I have so many scraps to use up

I'll work on pulling fabrics tomorrow. I want to be fairly conservative on this one--it will probably be my departmental holiday family donation quilt this year. I don't want to scare them! :)

I like both, Mom2, but I guess I like the blues better.

Thanks. I am going to use the "blues" which are actually an orchid color so in person they read both purple and blue, but I have changed the background to a red, which really made the other colors pop.

This is a picture of the final fabrics I have chosen to use in this mystery quilt.[ATTACH=CONFIG]592761[/ATTACH]

Mom2, your choice of red looks really good & inspired me to dig in my reds. After taking a b&w picture, my Red seems to fall in the medium category. I’m using a deep blue for the dark & a light blue for the light color. Of course, since less is needed of the blue, I have much more of it than either of the other two colors! My red & dark may turn out scrappy because they are just on the line of being enough for this project. Actually, they’re probably just under that line :(

mom2mo Am I thinking you are using the darkest red on the left as dark, the blue zigzags as medium? With the lighter blue as medium and the white as the light? If so, I think this will work. You can always change your mind on Saturday.

My plan was to use the zigzag as the dark, the lighter blue as the medium, the white as the light, and the red as the background.

I am planning on all blues. My wonderful boyfriend knew I was babysitting grandbabies this week. And didn't want me to miss out so he brought home a huge sack of fat quarters. Took a picture of them sent it to me and left back on the road. Can't wait to get home and see them.

I was wanting to use up some batiks, but I think there might not be enough contrast. Especially the top and bottom of the middle group? What do you think? I don't know what I would use for background....may have to go shopping.

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Beautiful Batiks.

5th one down in the center column, the mauve that's just above the green, seems too light to me.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]592881[/ATTACH]I’m going with a combination of green and brown tones,not sure what might work for the background, maybe coral or peach?

I woke up thinking that today was Saturday! I'm looking forward to the next step. :)

I woke up making sure what day the directions were coming out. Looking forward to starting as well.

I think I have my fabric chosen, red, dark & light blue from the same line. I've taken a B&W as well as a color picture. I'd like others' opinions, please.

conchalea, those are really pretty fabrics.

Whitepine- I think you have the perfect assortment. So pretty.

THanks-I hope there is enough contrast for these to work.

Conchalea, I love your fabric choices. I think that you will have enough contrast.

Conchalea- I also love your fabrics. Can't wait to see what unfolds!

Good morning train riders---I have missed the last few train rides---but am on this one----also am doing the last one...I think I can manage 2 trains at once LOL...anyway---I have my fabrics ready---Wooohoooo

good morning, all. I apologize for being absent yesterday, I missed all the questions, so will try to get those answered before I post the clue for today's sewing.

Kathryn you lucky gal, what a sweet boyfriend!

whitepine - I love your batiks, that darkish green in the middle row will probably be ok, just watch where you use it.

dhanke very pretty, I think these will work well. There is just enough contrast in the middle row, you will be ok.

Conchala - these are beautiful and will be terrific.

So now I am off to get a cup of coffee and reread my instructions for today's clue. See you in about 20 minutes.

Let's make some blocks!
 

Today you will make 9 pinwheels that will measure at 4-1/2” square, and some blocks that are snowballed on two corners, also ending up as a 4-1/2” square.

Start by making Half Square Triangle blocks (HST’s). For the pinwheels, Use the method with which you are the most familiar. The size of your cut pieces will depend on how you make you HSTs. You can over cut and then trim to 2-1/2”. Or the quilt police will tell you to cut 2-7/8” squares. If using this method, put two blocks together and sew down the middle, then cut on the diagonal. (I am not a fan of this method as I always seem to be too short or need trimming.) There are also papers, like Laundry Basket and Thangles. I used an Easy Angle ruler and cut my pieces from scraps that were 2-1/2” wide. Do not cut any fabric until you determine which method you will be using. I am using the Easy Angle ruler. Since I used the angle ruler, my strips were cut to those specifications, yours may be different.

And use as many different fabrics as you can if you are making scrappy. If only using yardage, make 36 HSTs out of your light an medium. To use my method, I put two 2-1/2” wide scraps, one light and 1 medium, right sides together, and cut with the ruler, making a matching pair, then sew together to make one 2-1/2” HST. I spun my seams ala Bonnie Hunter, but press however you want to press.

I would suggest before starting to sew the pinwheel blocks together, that you make all your HST blocks first, then match 4 together to make one 4-1/2” block, This way, you will have as many different fabrics per block as possible.

Next, choose your background fabric. You will need a total of 1-1/2 yards – more will be needed next weeks. I think I said last week you will need 1-1/4, and maybe that will work, but I thought in my head I had figured 1-1/2 yard to be safe. For today, cut 36 blocks from your background fabric that measure 4-1/2” square. I chose a yellow that I had planned on using the wrong side of the fabric because it wasn’t as bright, but got side tracked when I started to sew and forgot and ended up using the right side of the fabric for this step. In reality it is not quite as bright as shown in the pictures. Naturally, I ended up using the same side next week.

From your dark fabric, cut 72 squares at 2-1/2” square and used them to put on two corners of each background block. See the picture. As you can tell, I used more darks than shown last week on my scrappy choices. As I was working on the remainder of the quilt, I realized some of what I thought would be dark really should have been considered medium. If scrappy - use two different darks.

Hopefully this will keep you busy for a while. Next week will be more time consuming.

I’ll be back in a bit to see how all if going.

I'm looking forward to staying inside and getting some sewing done.

And I'm going to try to forget it's mid April . . . this is what it looks like outside right now, and it's not done yet.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psnmhhgiop.jpg