Color Guidelines Clarification
I’ve seen a couple blocks that seem to be going beyond the color guidelines provided during the sneak peek and both in the downloadable directions and the October 1 blog post. Before our controlled color-way gets any more out of hand, I want to restate them and tell you what is within the guidelines and … what is not.
In the directions, I refer to:
- LONG bar – this is the bar that is oriented along the long length of the block. In my block below it’s the medium gray with white print.
- MIDDLE bar – the one in the middle. It is the yellow/gold/orange print in my block.
- OUTSIDE bars – the two on either side of the MIDDLE bar. They are the brown on brown dot print in my block.
The guideline say that:
- ONE of the bars (or both OUTSIDE bars) MUST be GRAY
- ONE of the bars (or both OUTSIDE bars) MUST be BROWN
- ONE of the bars (or both OUTSIDE bars) MUST be GOLD OR ORANGE
Note that it asks you to use gold OR orange, not BOTH and to use them for only ONE of the bars (or both outside bars)
There is further specific information about what is within the guidelines for each of the fabrics:
- GOLD/ORANGE: It may be a solid or a tone-on-tone (TOT) print or a print containing gold AND orange. It shouldn’t contain any other color.
For the GRAY and BROWN, I didn’t add the phrase at the end, “It shouldn’t contain any other color,” but, honestly, I thought I was being so specific in saying that it could contain Black and/or white in addition to the shades of GRAY or BROWN that it wasn’t need it.
- GRAY – it may be solid, a tone-on-tone (TOT) print, a gray print which includes black and/or white, or a small scale, dense black and white print that reads as gray.
- BROWN – it may be solid or a tone-on-tone (TOT) print, a brown print that includes black and/or white. Value-wise it can be anything from tan to dark chocolate.
Your bar fabrics should not contain any colors besides GRAY, BROWN, GOLD, ORANGE, BLACK and WHITE.
Because these are four-color blocks (including the WHITE BACKGROUND), it’s important to pay attention to this controlled scrappy color-way so that when all the blocks are put together in a winner’s quilt, your blocks doesn’t end up being the one that looks just plain wrong.
Unfortunately, a couple of the early blocks posted aren’t following the guidelines and since those first blocks are often used as examples for the quilters making blocks that follow them, before anyone else makes blocks, please make sure you are following the written guidelines, not just looking at the blocks posted as an example.
I will be sending email to a few quilters about their fabric choices. I appologize for not saying something immediately, but I am still really sick, falling behind on lots of important things in my life (and obviously a bit cranky that I have to spend time this morning trying to be more clear about the color/fabric guidelines and asking you all to READ THE GUIDELINES.)
Hi Sophie , I’m sorry to hear your still feeling yucky…feeling yucky blows Big Time! I am thinking good healthy , happy thoughts and sending them your way. I hope you catch the great vibes. I am glad you sent this email because I was pulling fabrics yesterday and sure enough there was rust and a tad of red in my brown…I’ll need to get into town for a proper brown. Rest Sophie, Rest and drink lots of fluids….