Recognise the pinwheel flags from last week? Here’s where they started.

I’ve been playing with elongated curves lately. I was prompted by the oval drunkard’s path templates from Jenny Haynes / Papper, Sax, Sten, which I got awhile back. They’re 2:1 curves, so twice as high as they are wide (standard drunkard’s path blocks are 1:1 – the same width and height).

I wasn’t sure how to make 2:1 curves in Electric Quilt, but I figured out that you can draw a standard curve, then select it and drag it the box around it to create new dimensions. I’m not sure I got the dimensions quite right in this design, but I got sidetracked by the concept of using curves in this way. It’s a concept I’ve tried a few times recently – you might’ve seen Sunday sketch #251, and I’ll post some other designs like this in the future.

Anyway – alternating blocks help to introduce a bit of negative space, so the whole design doesn’t feel too crowded.

The great thing about a four-colour palette is how many combinations are possible. Here are a few.

It gives a slightly different feel to the design if you switch the order of the alternating blocks, so that the curved blocks are in the corners.

I used sashing between the blocks, so it’s possible to use all curved blocks throughout the design without making it feel too crowded…

…but I still prefer the alternating arrangement of curved and non-curved blocks.

I love the oval drunkard’s path shape! It lends a bit of wonkiness and an informal feel to the overall design. I’m looking forward to trying out the Papper, Sax, Sten templates and coming up with more curvy designs. This one could be made using the templates, triangle-in-a-square units, and squares.