Going Towards the Light

 After pinning up all the darker river area fabrics I thought I would want, it was time to step back and assess.  As these are going to be the only darker values in my piece, it's easy now to get a sense of how the value pattern is going to look against the white of the paper and decide if I like it.

I also have this fabulous fabric (seen here pinned to the right, on the design board) that has a cabbage-like pattern.  It's got great "texture" to it but it is much more intense in color than any other fabric that I'm using and seems a little out of place.  After much pondering (I really did like it and want to use it), I reluctantly took it down from my design wall and put it aside.

With all my darker values in place, my strategy is to go to the opposite side of the spectrum and fill in my lightest value.  In getting my lightest value into place and thinking of where those places might naturally fall in my landscape, I can then gradually make decisions on filling in the middle value areas between the two extremes of light and dark
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Here's a picture of my lightest fabric.  There is a great large-scale pattern overall with areas of bright white, beige and pale gray.  Because the pattern is in a bit of a grid formation, I was careful to cut out my pieces randomly "on-point" so I didn't get strong vertical or horizontal lines in the final look.  The fabric is so light in color that it is hard to see in the photo of the design wall, but if you look carefully you can see where I have added the first of my snow" fabrics.