Wayward Transparency Quilt Along {Fabric Requirements}

Welcome to the official start of the Wayward Transparency Quilt Along! I am so excited to get started and I hope you are too!

Quilt Along Intro

I am looking forward to exploring using color value and transparency in a quilt along with you! The Wayward Transparency Quilt Along runs from September 2017 through the end of January 2018. The details of the schedule are listed below.

• August 18, 2017 – Wayward Transparency Design Reveal
• September 14, 2017 – Wayward Transparency in Prints
• September 15, 2017 – Planning and Fabric Requirements
• September 16, 2017 – Fabric Options and Sales
• October 13, 2017 – Cutting Instructions
• October 27, 2017 – Piecing #1
• November 10, 2017 – Piecing #2
• November 24, 2017 – Piecing #3
• December 15, 2017-January 11, 2018 – Finishing
• January 12, 2018-January 31, 2018 – Link Up Finishes (Quilt tops or finished quilts OK)
• Early February 2018: Announce Prize Winners

The Wayward Transparency Quilt Along yields either a 68ʺ x 68ʺ lap size quilt top OR a 48″ x 48″ large baby quilt / small lap quilt – the choice will be yours!

Instructions

The instructions are published right in this post (after these few announcements) and are available in an easy to print PDF format, link below. The instructions will always remain in the blog posts, but the full PDF pattern is now on sale for $10 in my Quilting Jetgirl Craftsy and Etsy stores, and it is even available as a printed booklet!

Facebook Group

I encourage you to join the Quilting Jetgirl Facebook Group (if you have not already).  We now have over 600 members in the group and I am so excited for the members to start sharing pictures of their fabric picks.  If you want some feedback on possible fabric choices or have any questions during the quilt along, the Facebook Group is an excellent resource. Please share your progress pics on social media with the hashtag #WaywardTransparencyQuilt and tag me using @QuiltingJetgirl.

Sponsors

We have 10 generous sponsors and over $600 worth of prizes for this event!  You can read more about the sponsors and prizes from post 1, and post 2.

Quilt Fabric Options and Sales

Tomorrow (Saturday, September 16th), I will be sharing a post with lots of fabric options and sales information! The post will contain a coupon code for BackSide Fabrics, special curated fabric combinations and deals from the Honey, Bunny, and Doll shop, details and bundles of some of Sarah J’s fabrics (like I used for the print version of Wayward Transparency I shared yesterday), and some curated shopping lists for fabric options and a discount code from the Fat Quarter Shop. (A little different than a kit, if you like any of the Fat Quarter Shop fabric combinations, simply click on each fabric link and add the amount of yardage listed to your online shopping cart.)

Wayward Transparency Planning and Fabric Requirements

Transparency quilts play with subtleties of fabric values to create layered effects. The key to creating a successful transparency quilt is in the fabric selection. I suggest starting by evaluating fabric side by side to select fabrics with the same color tones. For instance, if you would like to create a transparency quilt using red fabric, start by auditioning red fabrics together and remove reds with a blue under tone in favor of reds with an orange under tone (or vice versa).

Once an initial fabric pull has been made, it is time to evaluate the value of the fabric. The easiest way to evaluate the value of your fabric pull is to photograph the fabric together, open the photograph in a photo editor, and convert the photo to black and white. Note that this is not the same as applying a filter to the photo as filters do not create a pure greyscale image. Once the photo is converted to black and white (greyscale), you can evaluate how even the steps in tone are between your fabric choices. For fabrics that appear to close in tone, they will be almost the same shade of gray in the black and white photograph, and additional fabric editing would result in a more successful transparency design.

In addition to paying attention to the tone and value of the fabrics, scale (which is the size of a fabric’s print) is also very important when choosing fabrics in a transparency quilt. Small-scale prints recede in a design and read as a single color, and large-scale prints with lots of color variation will be more difficult to successfully incorporate into a transparency design. One rule of thumb for those new to working with transparency would be to work with solids or modern blenders that read as solid, even at close range.

Wayward Transparency requires 3 fabrics ranging in value from Fabric A (lightest) to Fabric C (darkest), but the design would be just as effective going from Fabric A (darkest) to Fabric C (lightest). Another option to consider exploring for Wayward Transparency would be progression around the color wheel, such as primary color mixing Yellow (Fabric A), Green (Fabric B), and Blue (Fabric C).

The Wayward Transparency Quilt Along offers two quilt sizes. The On Point version shown on the front cover will finish at 68″ square and the Traditional Layout version will finish at 48″ square. Included are blank quilt patterns that you can use to color and plan your layout. I also like to use blank patterns to doodle and design my quilting motifs. Note that there are many other block rotation arrangements that you can select from for the Traditional Layout, as noted below.

Wayward Transparency Traditional Layout Options

Wayward Transparency – On Point Coloring Page

Wayward Transparency – Traditional Layout Coloring Page

Fabric Requirements – On Point (68″ square)

• Fabric A – 3 ½ yards
• Fabric B – 1 ¼ yards
• Fabric C – ½ yard
• Backing – 4 ¼ yards
• Binding – ⅝ yard

Fabric Requirements – Traditional Layout (48″ square)

• Fabric A – 1 ½ yards
• Fabric B – 1 ¼ yards
• Fabric C – ½ yard
• Backing – 3 ¼ yards
• Binding – ½ yard

Are you are feeling indecisive about which version to make (on point or traditional)? Consider purchasing the yardage for the On Point version and decide later if you will go with the Traditional or On Point version. I’ll be back tomorrow with some fabric options and discounts!

Any questions?  Leave them in a comment below or post them to our Facebook group page.  I look forward to seeing everyone’s fabric selections.