Using Photoshop for a color preview...

The new batik top is done, though I'm tempted to add to it and make it queen-sized -- it's just got such a good summery feel, and I could use a new bed quilt! I'm usually a big Kona Snow consumer, but I used bright white with these blocks, to give it a crisp and clean look. It reminds me of the colorful houses in Bermuda with their bright whitewashed roofs.

I was waiting for a sunny day to get a good picture, but it's been raining since Saturday (didn't get much golf in like I'd hoped), and I'm beginning to think it's never going to clear up.

And yes, that's "Currents" unbound on my living room wall. If I had to wait until it was bound, it'd never get up there.

"Bermuda Blocks"

This was an easy, easy pattern, for anyone looking for something quick. Because the blocks have strips on only two sides and get rotated, there aren't many seams to match up.

Archie had to help, as always. Fortunately, the floor under my refrigerator is pretty clean -- I pull toys out from under it on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis.

Busted!

Enough with the cat photos, let's get to the point of this post.

Photoshop enables you to add an adjustment layer to compensate for less-than-ideal photo conditions (poor lighting, for example). Pictures with artificial light usually have too much yellow, so I add a bluish layer to balance it out and get the colors back to how they look in real life. Sometimes it works really well, sometimes it doesn't. This morning as I was preparing the above photos for posting, I made a cool discovery.

Forgive me if you already know about this, or if you don't know what I'm talking about, but I feel the need to explain the process.

I clicked on the wrong selection and mistakenly added a Hue/Saturation layer instead. It's kind of the same thing, but with a greater ability to tweak things -- and when the options came up, I started playing with the color balance. And discovered that this is a GREAT tool to preview different color combinations!

Look! No more wondering "What if I made that quilt with different blues? And more yellow?"

Or "What if I'd bought those purple and green bundles instead?"

You really enjoyed putting that top together and would like to make another, but aren't sure if the colors you had in mind would translate. "What if I worked it up in pinks and greens?"

And then there's that question that nags us all: "That fabric was almost too cheap to pass up! Should I go back and get it?"

Um, no.

"I loved AmandaJean's Pete + Repeat quilt. Would that work here?"

Actually, I really like this. I may have to make it.

Or you could just take five different pictures of the same quilt, adjust the colors, and tell everybody that you'd been crazy productive this past week.

The possibilities are endless!