SuzSLO

JeanieG: love your fabrics! I especially like the purple stripe. Stripes can drive you crazy but add so much interest to a quilt. Glad you will be joining us.

audsgirl

JeanieG, Your colors look great. I have several of the same fabrics. I always love it when I see someone else with the same taste as I have. Good luck with the mystery.

Leslie

petthefabric

Some of the collections have had a full range of values (very light to dark) for each of the colors (purple, orange, teal). Since value is doing the work of making the pattern, the eye picks up a value, let’s say dark,. Doesn’t matter if it’s orange or purple, just that it’s dark, and tries to make a pattern from dark.

If all the purples are dark and no teal/orange are dark, the eye reads the dark purple as a pattern. The orange could be medium, the eye would pick up all the orange for a pattern.

was this any clearer?

toverly

Perfect explanation Petthefabric. I know my first few Bonnie's didn't work out the way I wanted, I just didn't understand this concept.

SuzSLO

Thanks for adding the greater detail. My personal rule is that in a quilt with a repeating block, not every block needs to strongly show the pattern by having high contrast values. In some blocks, it is okay to have low contrast. The eye wants to find pattern and with enough high contrast blocks, it will fill in the low contrast blocks. The trick is getting the right balance and that is especially tricky in a Mystery Quilt. For the last few quilts, my initial fabric pull tends to have a wide range of value, but some of those fabrics will likely not be used.

Edited to add: Also, if there is string piecing in the design, having a mix of values for the color adds sparkle. I have added a photo of my string pieced units for Grassy Creek (with blue instead of Bonnie’s suggested grey).

joe'smom

petthefabric, thank you for further explaining!

audsgirl

Oooh, those are cool, SuzSLO! I'm a big fan of blue.

Leslie

kristijoy

I'm thinking about joining this mystery! Do you think I could use something like this for the background? I have lots of the purple, aqua, and orange.

tallchick

What fun fabric! I’d be hesitant to use it as a neutral though since she is known for smaller pieces you may end up pieces that are different colors. Perhaps save it to use for the border or part of the backing?

toverly

I like the fabric. I would base my colors on it and not cut it up as a background. Then I would use it for the back. Bonnie mentioned large prints getting lost in this one. You might not end up with entire dragonflies just bits here and there. But of course, it's your quilt. Go with what you love.