I follow an online quilter-blogger, Karen Brown at her website Just Get It Done Quilts. Recently I watched one of her YouTube videos on how to use layer cake pre-cuts to best advantage. Since I have several of these coordinated 10" square stacks of fabric in my stash, I looked forward to a type of formula guidance to sew up those that I have. I decided to practice with this Moda layer cake called Bobbins and Bits that dates back to its release in 2013. I think I was drawn in by the feature fabric with scissors and buttons on it; otherwise I am not an avid fan of batiks. Karen's post deals with 1) color value evaluation, 2) symmetry placement, and 3) cost premium of the fabrics. I will deal with color value and cost in this post and leave my symmetry placement for a future post.
Color Value Evaluation
There is a saying that "Value does the work and color gets the credit". Before selecting fabric combinations, Karen Brown suggests determining the value of your fabrics in order to best decide how to combine them with each other. She proposed an approach to determine the relative value of your fabrics using the camera and photography edit capabilities on your cell phone. I decided to learn this skill.
My Bobbins and Bits layer cake had four print genres of fabrics. A feature genre with scissors had only one only fabric square in each colorway (A). There were two of each colorway for a genre of swirls/dots (B), a genre of zigzigs (C), and a genre of marbleized blenders (D). Per Karen's suggestion, I dutifully laid out my prints in what I perceived to be increasing value. I then learned to take a cell phone picture of them and use a filter to modify the photo to black/white and remove color to better discern the value. I learned a lot about camera controls and the value concept. Here are my results for each of my layer cake's four genres.
A1
A2
B1
B2
C1
C2
D1
D2
The fabrics did not display a great deal of contrast. So much for that helping me in my color placement... But this process made me aware and gave me a tool for other fabric pairings in other projects.
Evaluation of Premium Cost of Layer Cakes
So what is the magical allure of layer cakes? Is it all the pattern variations? Is it the convenience of the assortments all in one place? Is it the challenge of having that many fabrics to wrangle? Is the layer cake on sale? Be aware that satisfying those preferences actually costs about a 30% premium. Here is a sample calculation showing that cost difference.
How much yardage is in a layer cake?
42 squares @ 10"x10" each = 4200 sq in.
Divide that by ~ 42 WOF = 100 in = ~2 ¾ yd
Layer cake price ~$45: 2 ¾ yd @ $11.98/yd = $33; $45/$33 = 1.36
Sample Moda premium 36%
Layer cake price ~$40: 2 ¾ yd @ $11.50/yd = $32; $40/$32 = 1.25
Sample Riley Blake premium 25%
Alternatively, buying ⅓ yard will yield four 10" squares in one colorway of choice. The option exists to buy only those colorways that appeal or that blend well together. I am not intended to make you feel guilty, just aware. That ~30% premium cost has not stopped me in the past. Here is a quilt I made from two layer cakes bought on clearance sale. I did not know about the symmetry method at the time and struggled with the block placement. Note there is over a year from start to completion.
Quilt By Number 3/5/2021 and 5/12/2022
I was made aware of layer cake cost and contrasts nuances in the
Just Get It Done Quilts links, for Stashbuster #6. I also learned of a symmetry method formula for deploying layer cakes. I will show my use of that trick in my next post; but truly Karen does a better job of explaining symmetry by way of example. Until I've published my post, watch
Just Get It Done Quilts' YouTube video, near the end,
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