Splinter, I like the last one.

Ok I'm a newbie with this,how do I know what paint chips to get?

mamajack3 The paint chip names are listed on Bonnie Hunter's blog:
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2016/...ery-intro.html

got a 40% off coupon in the mail from my LQS, so stopped in this morning and picked up the Tri-Rec rulers. I'll toss them in the box with the fabric I pulled out.

I will try batiks this year. The color variations in the fabrics are so pretty. Just a few more yellows and I'll be ready to go. Soooooooo exciting!

Fraew, I love your batiks. You even have some neutrals which I have a hard time finding in batiks.

Love the batiks, Fraew! Great neutrals. I was just wondering what this might look like in batiks, so I'll be watching your quilt!

I finally got a chance to go fabric shopping! I wasn't sure if I could afford it so I have decided to make half the quilt and I went to Joanne's instead of my local quilt store. It took me almost an hour to choose the fabrics but I am pleased with my choices. From left to right I am keeping the dark and light purple the same. And the blue is for the green and the teal is for the yellow (the colour is not showing well, it's a bright teal) and the zinger is for the magenta and the grey is the neutral.

I also was able to buy the tri recs triangle to make things a bit easier.

I can't wait!! Everyone's choices are beautiful!!

I was going to sit this one out and watch, but I had an idea. I have swap blocks from the recent boom swap I'll be getting back in red, teal, and white. Probably not enough to make a full quilt, soooooo if I do like 1/3 or 1/4 of Bonnie's instructions I might end up w/ enough for a 9 patch on point center to be surrounded by my boom swap blocks. I'll look and see what I have left of the red fabric I sent that will be my magenta, then dark and light teal for the purples, black and grey for the green and yellow and white for the neutral. When I get them pulled I'll post a pic.

I think I am going to give this a try and have pulled most of the fabric from my stash. But I would appreciate your evaluation of the contrast factor...is the yellow too pale, the purples not enough contrast and is that really magenta??? They seem a bit brighter in real life. I appreciate all of your input!

I do not see a picture.

OK, now I think I have it....I need advice on my colors and the contrast factors. Are the yellows too pale and the purples too similar. I don't know about the magenta....or is it just pink:).

Here are my thoughts for what they are worth. First I love the magenta, my understanding is the magenta is suppose to be the pop color different from anything else in the group which yours is. Your group of light purples has one extremely light shows almost white on my screen, I would remove it. You have a similar green that is exceptionally light almost yellow I would remove that one. The greens are a bit neon not sure how that will play out, but I don't think any of us can truly answer that I think that will mostly be up to your comfort zone. Can you post a pic of your neutrals next to your yellows?

lizzie3, that is a lovely combination of fabrics! I think they will make a beautiful quilt.

Carol, very pretty fabrics! I think you have enough contrast between your greens and yellows. I agree that a photo of the yellows and neutrals together would make it easier to see if there is sufficient contrast between them, as well. I think there is. I would take out the third lavender from the bottom and try it with the purples to see if it fits better there. I'm using some very pale lavenders myself, as Bonnie didn't mention contrast between the lavender and the neutral as something crucial.

I was wondering about that one darker lavender also.

I agree with Kassaundra - the very light purple is probably TOO light; and the yellow-y green is probably too similar to your yellows. Bonnie did mention in her post that the greens need to tend more towards olive tones, and Kassaundra is correct to be a little concerned about the neon aspect of the greens.

You could just group your greens and yellows together, step back a bit (like half-way across the room?) and see how well they contrast - if they blend together from far away, they will blend together in the quilt, and you will lose whatever pattern is being created.

Just my two cents' worth, and we all know that won't buy ANYTHING nowadays! :)

Thank you Kassaundra and Lisa - I did pull out some of the neon greens and replaced with other choices, plus added some more "risky" neutrals (I'm rather bland and controlled:), but do you think there is enough contrast with the yellows now. I also moved that one darker purple. This is getting harder than I expected....I never have been good at making decisions on colors.

Carol in WI, I didn't say anything at first because you don't have to go with olive greens if you'd rather substitute lime greens instead... but what I see with your purples is that the lights and darks all run together. Not much contrast. To "see" your color values, look at them (or your photo of them) and squint. Squinting will help you see your colors in terms of dark and light. The darks will jump out at you and the lights will fade out. Squinting at your purples I see only two that are darks, three that are lights, and the rest are in the medium range somewhere.

Also (and this may blow your circuits), that small bundled piece on the top of your green pile is actually a neutral. It has a white background and will "read" as a white. Squint at your greens and you'll see what I mean.

I don't want to make this any harder than it needs to be, just offering these comments because you asked. But actually you can use any colors anywhere and get a pretty quilt... just may not have some of the optical effects Bonnie intended. Don't get discouraged.

I have never heard of this tip but it really works!! I think my blue is a tad darker than I would like. They didn't have any lighter that I liked and was the right shade but I will check out my local quilt shops.

Sometimes it's easier to see the contrast between light and dark in a black and white picture.

Carol, I'd say you lighter neutrals will be fine with your yellows, but the darker ones are close in value, so I would remove them. Here is your photo in black and white -- it's easier to see which ones are too close to the yellow in value.

This is true, but squinting is faster and less hassle!

I learned the squinting thing when I was in high school, from my fine arts teacher. We did charcoal drawings every day and the squinting showed the lights and shadows. It's really useful in quilting, too. Thank you, James Wheeler.

Fabric
 

I love your fabric. The purple is my favorite. Who made the purple fabric?

I love the fabric choices. I am learning so much from looking at all the different fabric choices everyone has picked

Who's purple fabric are you asking about? Can you give us a name or post number?

Lisa, How kind of you to take the time and show those fabrics in black and white! I remember your name from the last Bonnie Hunter mystery. Good to see you doing it again this year.

It's really no trouble, Sandra. I'm so glad to see you will do the mystery again, and all the new names, too! Such fun!

Many Thanks to everyone who weighed in on this challenge with me! It certainly does help to both squint and to see it in black and white. Back to the stash drawers for me and I will also review some of the other postings to see their selections and contrasts. I've only done one of Bonnie's mysteries in the past and remember how wonderfully helpful everyone on this board was at that time.

Love your avatar quilt, Carol in WI!

Joe's Mom (Lisa), thanks for the black and white photo of Carol in WI's fabrics. It reminds me that I need to do this (take a b & w photo) to see the values of the fabric. I finally started pulling fabrics yesterday, laid them out together, and then stuffed them in a bag but I going back and getting them out and take a photo because I am not sure about some of them. I am also going to try SewBizGirl's suggestion of squinting. Thanks for all helpful advice! Wonderful group!

OK, I'm back again with these choices and can not tell you all how much I appreciate the time all of you are giving me in choosing fabrics! I'm not sure I like most of the light purples and may have to go shopping. If you see anything in these that scream out to be remove, feel very free to tell me as my "squint meter" is a bit rusty. Thank you again ~

Carol, the only thing I see according to how it shows on my screen, these may be off in life. I would switch the last purple in the dark purple group w/ the second fabric in the light purple group.

I'm in on the mystery quilt. I am a very new quilter so I'm hoping that it won't be too difficult. If nothing else, I hope to learn a lot. I don't have much of a stash so I did a little shopping. I still need to get a few more but I wanted to see what you experts think of how I'm doing so far. I have very few neutrals so I've got to work on that too.
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Carol, the lavender and purple Kassaundra mentioned are sort of in the middle as far as value -- they're a bit dark for the lavender but light for the purple; I would try that switch she mentioned, and maybe try them both as lavenders, too. Otherwise, I think your fabrics look great and you're good to go.

CGS, what absolutely wonderful fabrics! I'd probably take out the lightest green and the lightest purple (small print), but see what others think.

Contrast in value is important, but don't underestimate the contrast from color--value isn't everything. Relax, try it, see how you like it--this isn't a contest; it's playtime. :)

Your fabrics look awesome, CGS! Wish I had your collection. The magenta is really cool.

Exactly! PLAYTIME. You don't have to get it exactly right to have a wonderful quilt! PLAY! :p

I agree about value vs color. I think Bonnie's palette this time has some colors with similar value (where b&w photos don't show much contrast) but are different enough to play well.
What I am finding the trickiest is those medium purples/lavendars that could go either way. I put those aside until I see how the pieces are going together and may not use them at all.

I was looking in my stash for fabric for bindings, and found three tubs of fat quarters I'd not gone through when pulling for this mystery. Hopefully I can add more variety to my selection, and I'd rather use up fat quarters I'd forgotten about. I think some of the larger prints may be problematic, especially if there is a lot of color difference. When you cut them into 2" squares or smaller HST, you can end up with pieces that aren't the correct color at all for what it's suppose to be.