After saying on Instagram last week that I needed to design with flying geese more… here’s another sketch with flying geese – in this case, big and small and overlapping. I designed this series awhile ago as a stepping stone to another design. I wasn’t going to post it (I’m more interested in the designs that it led to), but I changed my mind as it follows nicely from last week’s sketch.

Also, I saw a lovely quilt pattern on Instagram that reminded me of this design, and I wanted to show how easy it is for two people to arrive independently at similar designs. See below for more on that topic!

So in this design, I’ve connected small and big flying geese, extending the bottom geese into chevrons and then overlapping these shapes. I like how a big group of these shapes look like a collection of buildings, like church steeples maybe.

That perspective can be turned upside down by rotating alternate columns of blocks, which adds a lot more movement to the design.

And the shapes can be extended to the bottom of the design. In this version, they look a smidge different in the very bottom row, as they’ve lost their chevron shape and are just plain flying geese again.

Recently when wandering around Instagram, I saw the Chevron Points quilt pattern from Julie at Running Stitch Quilts. (The pattern was released on Friday 13 May.) You can instantly see the similarities between that quilt pattern and this week’s sketch: the main motif is a chevron topped with a smaller flying geese unit. In Julie’s case, she hasn’t overlapped the motifs; rather, she’s alternated them with negative space. She’s also split each motif down the middle, allowing her to play with colour in a different way than I have. Isn’t her pattern gorgeous?

Often I’ve got a few sketches up my sleeve, and whether/when I post them depends on what I’ve recently posted, what kinds of shapes I feel like talking about, and generally just how I’m feeling about a particular design. If I see something similar to one of my unpublished sketches, I might shelve that sketch rather than posting it. But in this case, I thought it was a great opportunity to show how easily different people can come up with similar designs. I asked Julie if she was OK with me posting these designs and mentioning her pattern, and she graciously said yes. (I would’ve been OK if she’d said no; I know the time and effort involved in designing patterns, and I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. I’ve got plenty other sketches to choose from.)

There are a lot of quilt designers out there, and only so many shapes to play with, so it’s no surprise to me that two people can arrive at a similar design independently and separately. I find it fascinating! It’s one of my favourite topics of discussion. And, of course, I always love discovering new-to-me quilt designers and quilt patterns.

Next week I’ll share the design that this week’s Sunday sketch eventually led to. With just a few tweaks, it ends up looking quite different from this week’s sketch.