Monday, February 24, 2014

Shades of Gray {the difference between Shadow, Silver, & Ash}

I’m working on a new quilt and ordered two new-to-me shades of Kona—shadow and silver.  When deciding on the colors, I searched around online to see the difference between the shades, but couldn’t find any helpful info.  And anyone who’s ordered fabric online before knows, those little square swatches often don’t look like the color in person.  (Maybe it’s time for me to invest in a color card?)

So here’s a photo to help you distinguish these shades of gray.

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This photo was taken in full daylight.  The colors on my screen look just like in real life.  Can you tell the difference between these grays?  I can barely see any difference in the photo or in person in full daylight!

The block on the left is Kona Shadow with a cross in Kona Silver.  The block on the right is Kona Ash with a cross in Kona Silver.

I had a very tough time telling Kona Shadow and Silver apart when I took them out of the package.  At first I thought I had been sent the same color twice.  Thank goodness there was a sticky label on each so I could identify the colors.  Once I realized they weren’t the same fabric, I could tell the Silver is a slight bit lighter than the Shadow, but they are close enough that I have cut the wrong color a few times while making these blocks.

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This photo was taken outdoors in the shade.  The difference is slightly more perceptible indoors or in low light.

Kona Shadow and Ash are very similar too, but I can—if I look very closely—tell the Kona Ash is a warmer gray with just a hint of brownness.  Really all three are quite similar, with minute degrees of difference between them.

Kudos to Kona for having so many grays to choose from and continuing to expand their variety.  Hope this is helpful if you like using gray in your quilts like I do!

13 comments:

  1. It is easier to see the difference with the blocks in the shade. The Kona color cards are a bit pricy,but are so worth it! Thank goodness for those little sticky color labels!

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  2. Wow...those are really close in color. Now, what color thread do you use to quilt them????

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  3. Ha ha! They're SO close! Cute blocks :)

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  4. Those must all be really light, because Ash is already light. I do love similar colors.

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  5. I have a Kona color card, but I don't use it that often. I think I got mine in 2011 and it has 214 colors on it. There are 243 colors available now with another 28 new colors coming in September!

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  6. How interesting to see those to next to each other. Sometimes when I've used a solid thoughout a quilt I've purposely added slightly different shades of colour in just to add a bit of interest. No one probably notices but me. :)

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  7. So interesting! I wouldn´t notice a difference in daylight.
    I have once accidently used two different shades of white as negative space for a rather complicated quilt and just realized when I saw the almost finished quilttop in artificial light, bummer!

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  8. The outdoor pic in the shade did it for me. They are SO close in comparison as you say.
    Ah well love them all! LOL

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  9. I'm so happy you posted this! I can't find any info on the new silver and shadow either and I want a really light cool grey, so I'm thinking silver is best. Ash is a little too warm. Cheers!

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  10. I'm so happy you posted this! I can't find any info on the new silver and shadow either and I want a really light cool grey, so I'm thinking silver is best. Ash is a little too warm. Cheers!

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  11. Thank you for taking the time to post this - very helpful when selecting fabric online!!! - and I need to make the right choice for a Christmas project that is in progress!

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  12. Thank you for posting this! Very helpful! :)

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  13. Thanks! I love this post… I need just this info because I have to choose between silver and shadow for a modern quilt.

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