I go through phases where I sketch a single shape over and over again. Triangles, squares and rectangles, octagons, diamonds… I get stuck on a theme and see where it takes me. Invariably, it takes me to the same place: overlapping.

Overlap diamonds and you get more diamonds. Overlap them, and… well, you get the picture. Lots of lots of diamonds. I use graded cross-hatching to show the level of overlap (as on the sides in this sketch), or just to differentiate shapes (as in the middle).

To make this sketch into a quilt, I’d probably piece diamond units into (diagonal) strips before piecing the strips together.

I don’t know why, but I seem to see a sketch more clearly when I take a photo and look at that instead. When I finished this sketch, I didn’t notice that the small diamonds on the bottom left right are missing their median cross-hatch, but it was the first thing I saw in the photo. Hmm.