I’ve been playing with Adobe Illustrator a bit lately. As I explained to a friend recently, I learn about 5 new things every time I use it… and promptly forget about 3 of the things I learned last time. It’s complicated! Still, I’m making progress.

I found* the perfect inspiration for some Illustrator practice this week: a fantastic minimalist print by Melinda Wood Designs, which she sells through her Etsy shop:

(*thanks to Quilt by Starlight, who pinned it to one of her many awesome Pinterest boards).

I love the simplicity and boldness of Melinda’s design, not to mention its geometry. I immediately wanted to use those intersecting triangles to create something in Illustrator. After figuring out how to make equilateral triangles and how to fill individual parts of shapes, I came up with the following repetitive design…

I wasn’t sure about those empty hexagons, so I tried filling them with smaller triangle frames:

Hmm, maybe too busy.

I decided to simplify the design by concentrating on those triangular frames to create a secondary pattern of 6-pointed stars. But how the %&$#@ could I do that in Illustrator? It took me awhile, but I figured it out.

 

And finally, all in one colour with contrasting frames. This one reminds me of Islamic geometric patterns.

Don’t look too closely, or you’ll see how rough my Illustrator skills are!

Adding in a second colour helps to differentiate those 6-pointed stars.

I’m not sure how best to construct a quilt from these patterns – probably either foundation paper piecing or traditional piecing using diamond and triangle templates. There’d be points where 6+ fabric pieces would be coming together, which would require some nifty seamwork and/or a super-hot iron to avoid lumps.

 

Thanks to Melinda for kindly allowing me to refer to her artwork in this post. I’m not affiliated with her store in any way – I’m just a new fan of her work, which you can also see on Instagram.

 

 

 

 

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