I have a pretty big backlog of EQ8 designs to share, which is probably one of the reasons why I’ve felt less urgency to hand-sketch lately. I did pick up my dot pad recently though, which always feels great and makes me wonder why I don’t do it more often.

This week’s sketch arose from another series that I haven’t shared here. Sometimes a design is nothing special, but it leads to something else that’s more interesting. This design is an example of that… I started with some long skinny rectangles set at an angle, but they were kinda boring. But then I cut each one in half diagonally, and created this spiky block.

Repeated in a 4 x 4 layout, the last spike in each block meets up with the first spike in the next block, which lends some continuity to the whole design. Emphasising different sides of each block – through the use of dark and light colours – also helps to make new shapes.

There are a million and one ways to colour this design – and to create new shapes through colour. Of course, I usually settle on the obvious: a gradation from dark to light. Reds seemed like a good choice for such a dynamic design.

This design would be easiest to translate into a quilt pattern using foundation paper piecing. I’m not normally a fan of FPP, but in this case I think it would be super-easy way to get the crisp lines and angles needed to make this design pop.