Walking around the booths at any quilt show can be overwhelming. Our senses are set on overload and we often overlook many of the new quilting products on the floor, unintentionally, because there are so many to view.
I recently came upon a new product that would give me the ability to give every quilt I make the contrast and color values I desired. The nifty new product? Sew Red Glasses. This product is exactly what it sounds like: eyeglasses with red lenses. The red lenses on these glasses make it so you view your work in a grey scale, allowing you to see the important color values of light, medium, and dark in your quilts.
Finding Value
I was recently working on a paper-pieced quilt, carefully setting it up on my design board. There were many colors in this quilt, mostly batik fabrics. As I viewed it with the naked eye I felt it flowed beautifully. I turned to walk back to my machine and caught a glimpse of my new Sew Red Glasses out of the corner of my eye. (I tend to bring all my wares home from a show and then promptly forget about them.) I put them on and to my amazement, the quilt did not in fact flow as I had originally thought.
Turns out, many of the squares on my quilt read completely dark or medium. I really needed contrast. I went to my machine and with the glasses on, began matching lights and darks together to get me the contrast I needed. It is important to note however, the red filter does not give you the true value of red and pink fabric. I continued to piece my blocks and found that this quilt was developing more vibrancy and contrast than I could have dreamed of.
I was thrilled by the outcome, so much work had gone into this quilt, and it would have devastated me if it had lacked the POP
that we all desire in our quilts. These nifty little glasses will show you the value as well as the contrast of the colors, allowing you to make an exciting, vibrant quilt. Have you ever looked at a quilt that has beautiful colors and texture, but it falls flat and is blah or boring? That is because there isn’t enough contrast; you have to pay attention to the value of the color.
Seeing Red
As soon as you put on the glasses, you will see your fabrics in grey scale. (It’s best to use them before you begin your quilt.) With the glasses on, organize your fabrics by light, medium, and dark. With your fabrics organized and a clearer sense of the value and contrast you are working with, you are now ready to begin your project. Check your blocks after you have completed a few and you will be thrilled at the end result.
You can purchase either the glasses version or the handy clip-ons. This nifty little product definitely has my seal of quilting approval!
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There are green glasses which will work with reds and pinks but not with greens.....they are amazing.
It would have been nice to show the quilt after the blocks were rearranged using the red glasses to compare the quilts and see the revised flow.
The site to buy the red glasses was not secure. I got an alert to not use.