Low Volume; June 2015

June's program was about low volume. We discussed all the different types of low volume and how to determine whether a fabric is low volume. The definition of low volume is as fabrics that “read” as white or light fabrics but at the same time have a secondary pattern or design.

 Recently low volume has been updated to have a "neutral" background. The popular cotton and steel have a creamy grey background and work well as low volume.

There's two main kinds of low volumes Muted and Pop Low Volume. You can find in depth blog post here with the  The Elven Garden. She also goes into color value, which is very helpful in determining  if your fabrics are low volume.

Above,you can see the use of muted or 'whispering" low volumes. Some of these even have a bit of color, but they still whisper and fade away into the background. They are soft colors. The color and secondary pattern really do fade away when seen from a distance. 

Pop Low Volume is also described by the Elven Garden Blog as a light or white background and with a pop of color. It can be multicolored, but most involvement of pop low volume are added in small doses of one or two colors. Keeping in mind the color palette of your quilt. 

 Techniques you can use for determining low volume is look in the wrong side of binoculars. The second is just standing back a few feet. Squinting can be helpful. Take a black and white photo.

Deciding which low volumes to use will depend on the texture that you are looking for. Most of the time low volumes are used as background to give the quilt interest. Low volumes can be used for the whole quilt. Pop low volumes would be a lovely quilt on its own too. There's another blog post that has some wonderful pictures of low volume fabrics on Craftsy . You can also find tons of

low volume inspiration in this Flickr Group

Yvonne