A very simple design this week, created in Excel. This is another design that started off a little differently, then underwent a few iterations before reaching the final version. I’ll show you where it ended up, then take you back to the beginning to show you how I got there.

Here’s the end result:

It’s funny how it took so many iterations to reach something so cute and simple!

I started by nesting some zig-zag lines, so each cross was tucked into the ‘V’ shape of the line in front. I’m not sure where this idea came from – I just thought about it and wanted to see if it would work, and Excel seemed like the easiest way to test it (it’s great for straight-line designs).

After my first attempt, I decided that I didn’t like how the places where the lines crossed weren’t aligned vertically – see how, in that first image, the darker squares aren’t directly above each other? I wanted them to be lined up, but that meant lengthening the lines to give the crosses space to sit in a little closer inside each ‘V’. The second image shows how the design evolved.

See how the lines are now a bit longer? With the intersecting squares all lined up, it was time to play around with those crosses.

Sometimes the design stays the same, but the colouring changes the overall look or feel…

In the midst of all this playing, I decided that I wasn’t happy with the fact that the top and bottom rows of lines were perpendicular to each other (in the last 2 green images, above). They didn’t start out that way, but I’d added a row at some point, upsetting the balance. I removed the bottom row to restore the balance.

After creating the multicoloured design, I decided to focus more on the crosses than on the lines, so I stripped out every other line, leaving some of the crosses floating. Then topped and tailed the columns, so that each one starts and ends with a cross. And recoloured in yellow and green, because… well, who knows. It just seemed like a good idea at the time.

Of course, any one of these designs could’ve ended up being my favourite, or the one that I chose to post as this week’s Sunday sketch. I don’t always stop tweaking a design when I love it; sometimes I’ll keep going, and realise I’ve designed something I love even more. (And sometimes I’ll realise that I don’t like the new design at all, and I’ll go back to the older version!)

Anyway, for some reason, this simple, sparse design was the one that caught my eye this time. As you can probably tell, it would be very easy to make into an actual quilt: it’s all squares and rectangles, just set on point. You’d just need a few triangles around the edges to square it all off.

The green lines remind me of tracks on a farm, like tractor marks through a field. And the yellow crosses are bales of hay, or something being planted in rows. If I ever get around to writing a pattern for this one, I think I’ll call it ‘Harvest’.