Lessons
Lesson Info
Defining Low Volume
Thank you so much for tuning in and watching low volume basics with cheryl arcs unsure thank you so much for being with us. Thanks for having me. What are we going to be covering that I just a quick brief today is all about low volume fabrics will define them. I'll give you all the tips and tricks on working with them. We're gonna make a really awesome, fun modern quote block with him. Great! Awesome! And if you haven't already, make sure download that bonus material, I have a copy of the supplies let's here with me, so make sure to get that so you can get all the supplies you need from home. Is there another portion? Absolutely in your bonus materials were gonna be making one specific block today, but in the bonus materials I gave you cutting instructions to make it in two different sizes, which is really fun to mix up in a quill and there's also some scraps leftover from this block and so there's some tips and tricks on how to use the scraps effectively in something else. Great, awes...
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And if you are familiar with cheryl, she actually just finished writing three bucks, so make sure you check those out on amazon anywhere else amazon, your local quote shop should have them to perfect thank you so much with that sort of great speaking of my books, I did quite literally write the book on using low volume fabrics a month of sundays that sounds so cocky, but it's true a month of sundays is all about using low volume fabrics in there we go over a lot of the lessons we're going to do today, but in a way more detail we're going to go over it today and do something different, but the book itself is full of tips it's also full of the things that low volume inspires in us, which is about chilling note and it's a much quieter energy today, so when we get into the class, you'll see it a za little personal aside, I am in this book a lot, as is my family and my friends and my community in calgary on and then a few shots around the ocean as well, which is my second home and so the very personal book. So I really recommend this book if you're interested in low volume fabrics and doing it because there's also eight quilts and eight sewing projects that all make use of low volume fabrics in there, you don't have to use them with low volume, but they are great for it, so let's get into what is low volume so what are we going to do today? Our goal is to define low volume fabric and define the term get some really comfort in doing this even as I was talking about coming here to talk about this subject and with this class I had people coming up to me and going yeah, but what about color and I don't know if I can use it because it was orange in it and and it always looks like a mess when I do it and so I really want to get everybody comfortable with using the fabrics this way we're also going to be making and sewing a series of quote blocks today and we're going to do something excuse me called the x plus block s so we're going to go with that. So why low volume I am by nature a very colorful person in the way that I dress usually but my house as well this picture is actually in my living room that's my oldest daughter and that's what it typically looks like other than the fact that she's like laying still which doesn't usually there but I love color in my life I have my my entire upstairs my house is yellow or story orange and turquoise and my daughter's room is read and my son's room is lime green and in their basement all of the doors or painted a different color so for example the door to my sewing studio is lemon yellow the laundry room right next door is turquoise bedroom is orange I just love color I have to be in color I cannot live in it I cannot not work with it I need to have color around me and so I wouldn't change any of that but sometimes even I will admit it could be a bit much and we need it to be a little calmer and a little bit quieter right? We've all heard about how color gives energy right restaurants are designed in certain colors grocery stores use different colors branding campaigns all revolve around colors because they get us to do things or not do things as the case may be and so even though I have all this color around I need a little bit of quiet and respite every now and then and so that's when I started to really embrace low volume we were also renovating our house at the time had a flood gosh almost ten years ago now andre had a flood and our basement was completely destroyed and so we had to redo it and my husband decided that he absolutely wanted white walls in the basement and I don't like you know the builders beige I wanted my color and it was his idea to paint the doors so that we could have the color but because it was a basement and we're in canada and it's cold and it's dark and everything that he really wanted white walls well it was actually eye opening for me to have this a little bit of calm and quiet with it and that's when I really really started to get into the low volume fabrics was right around then, eh? So what is low volume? Most modern quilters are very familiar with this world, right? These are the bright saturated rainbow colors and they're awesome on dh they're great and we work with them because we love them and they're high contrast there, very intense and they shoate at you, right? These are very, very bright colors and so they showed at you and so the term low volume came around because they're quieter, right? There's still color the's have tons of color in them, but as opposed to the really bright ones I go are like, hey, the's wonder like hi and pretty look at me too, and they just whisper and they have a much quieter energy to them. They still have energy because they're still prince, they're not solids, they're not white on white, right? If you've been quoting a long time, it might be very familiar with the white on whites in the beijing on beiges where it's you know white printed on a white in the beige printed on a beige or any variation thereof which are all nice and they provide texture as opposed to using a plain white but not really a print the's air really prints right there color on fabric, whether that color be gray all the way through to red or orange or blue or or any of those things so that's there and that's why it came into being the term low volume I did not coin the term actually a fellow creative live instructor malka dubrowski is probably the one who could be credited with giving you the term low volume so what is it? Low volumes are white or light based prince fabrics with a print on them, right? So not those white on whites but they will have a light base it could be a pale blue baby or gray or or anything so a very light base and it will have a print on it so it's not a solid is not really playing solid can play with low volumes absolutely, but when we're talking about what it low volume fabric is in contrast to high versus low then we're looking at was still needing a print now that print can be anything though it could be a tiny little ditzy dot all the way to something large scale it can be a very pale blue to cobalt blue and that's what we're going to talk about today is how to use them all along effectively right? Because you can mix and match them all I'm going to show you a quote right now where they are all mixed in match this is a pattern from my first book sunday morning quilts but it's not in the book this is one of the other patterns that I've made up using low volley your prints so you can see in this we have very bray is his white with red quite bright on it you know this is a yellow and white sort of prince here little ditzy dot we've got some grays mixed in there at all mixes effectively in this very, very scrappy look and looks wonderful, right and there's everything we've got different scales of prince very close together very far apart and they all read differently and that's what today will be about how to use that all effectively you khun go for this scrappy look but sometimes you want a little bit more control with everything in there in the grand scheme of things, you could probably consider all light fabrics low volume. This is what the traditional art school people would say is that well it's like so stop calling it low volume because it is not that's, not a really it's not an art school correct definition designers cringe ad it um, quite a bit I get, I've gotten into arguments with some fabric designers that like it's it's all about contrast and its all of its value it's not low volume this volume thing doesn't make any sense from an art school perspective, it doesn't right, but that's, not what we're not here. We're not in art school, we're quilters. We're playing with fabric, in our basements and on our kitchen table, and if we're lucky in our separate studios, right, we're playing with fabric it's. This is the accepted term snow volume that's when I'm using from this point forward, and hopefully you will, tio s oh, don't worry about those art school definitions, because we know what we're talking about. And by the end of the day, so will you.
Class Materials
bonus material with purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Sondra
Cheryl is an excellent instructor. Great clear explanations and demonstrations throughout the workshop. I also love her humor and non-judgmental approach. I very much appreciated her "value" explanation, since this can be very confusing. Cheryl also provided great tips and suggestions. This was a great experience for me. I signed up for all of her workshops and look forward to each of them. Thanks very much.
Beth Conkwright
I've already made a quilt top with low volume fabrics. You really changed my idea that quilts had to have a ton of color. I want to try using low volume for background fabric next. Thanks for such a fun class.
a Creativelive Student
Takes a bit to catch on as the progression develops from monochromatic, through the light, dark and medium values to backgrounds but then the click happens and wow! I also have gotten a much better understanding of value which is my own personal nemesis. I'm excited to play.