I love this week’s design – super-simple, but super-cute too. Sometimes the most basic designs have the biggest visual impact!

A limited palette (just yellow and white) makes it easier to see those curves winding their way across the design, connecting each block. They’re also visible in the reverse colourway. Honestly, I could make all the quilts in this yellow. I love it!

Two main elements pop out when you look at the design: the pinwheels and the background checkerboard. That still offers up lots of opportunity for different colour placement, even with a limited palette. Here I’ve only used two colours (yellow and pink) plus white.

Keeping the checkerboard consistent and changing some of the pinwheels…

Or keeping the pinwheels consistent and changing some of the checkerboard…

Or changing both the checkerboard and the pinwheels (and introducing one more colour)…

Saturating the design more, but keeping a few pinwheels white…

Or even fewer white…

Or none at all…

Replacing the yellow in the previous version gives you a monochrome version again, but slightly different than the first one. The outermost blocks are pinwheels rather than checkerboards, so the whole design now has a square edge. This emphasises the internal horizontal and vertical lines, too.

And, finally, a little bit of whimsy to end on. I was going to show what a section of the previous version looks like against a coloured background, but decided to keep these extra curves in. I like how they’re a little reminder of the internal curves.

Another reason why those little curves stayed in is because of how I designed the block in this Sunday sketch… and cos I was too lazy to change it when I realised there was an easier construction method.

Originally, each block was made from two drunkard’s path units and two half-square triangles (with each pair in opposite corners). When drawing in EQ8, I didn’t bother separating the drunkard’s path unit from the HST, to make it easier/quicker to colour in. But that meant that some HSTs are still attached to curves, so I couldn’t get that straight edge I was after. But I’m actually glad – those curves are a lovely little design feature!

Anyway, in hindsight, it would probably be easier to alternate two block types: one made from four drunkard’s path units (the pinwheel), and the other made from a quarter-square triangle (to create the checkerboard). If you chain-pieced a bunch of curves, I reckon a quilt made from this design would come together in no time.