This is my last Sunday sketch for 2020… and the fact that I opted for muted colours is maybe a reflection of the type of year it’s been…!

I started by sketching some overlapping stripes, then moved from my dot pad to EQ8 to take it further. Whenever you get overlapping shapes, there’s an opportunity to introduce transparency by playing with colour. But sometimes I think I take it too far… it can get a bit overworked and come off as forced. So I’m constantly trying to balance design aesthetics with the ‘too far’ factor. Not sure which side of that fence I landed on today, but I wasn’t in the mood to explore further, so here we are.

I did try some different colours, some of which are in my usual palette. Here, I opted to avoid the transparency effect by using black to mark the overlap between the red and khaki rectangles.

And here’s the black doing the same job for a red and pink version.

Translating these designs into a quilt pattern would be easy-peasy… it’s all just stripes (long rectangles). The hardest part would be making sure all the edges lined up properly. I’d probably tackle that by piecing the design in 5 columns, then adding the large border pieces.

Update (30 December 2020): A friend pointed out that this design is similar to the Fruity Stripe fabrics from Melody Miller’s Clementine range for Ruby Star Society (manufactured by Moda Fabrics). There are definite similarities! The fabric’s stripes are angled, whereas mine are arranged horizontally. And both the width and the length of the overlap varies in the fabric, whereas they are consistent in my design. But both designs use the overlap as an opportunity to play with transparency. Not surprisingly, Melody’s colour choices are infinitely better than mine 🙂