The repeating shape in this week’s sketch reminds me a little of a churn dash block: it’s got a square in the centre, half-squares around the outside, and lots of sharp points poking out in all four directions… but it’s also quite different.

The repetition of the units also creates fantastic secondary shapes inside. So much movement! I wanted to see how else I could use the same block, so I tiled it normally.

Depending on which way the blocks were made, the repetitive unit could be an X or an (angular) O block. Alternating colours help to differentiate the blocks:

But isn’t it interesting how the block design disappears behind those small squares at the junction between 4 blocks? Those secondary shapes really come to the foreground and push the coloured pieces to the background. It looks less like the sides of each block are a really interesting shape, and more like they’re just straight rectangles overlaid with small squares. What started out as an edgy, quirky block in the top design now isn’t so eye-catching!

These blocks could be made easily using rectangles and triangles. Since a lot of the cutting might be on the bias, you could paper-piece for accuracy.