This week’s sketch is a direct progression of Sunday sketch #341. Instead of half-circles, I’ve used flying geese, and instead of larger circles in the inside of those black squares, I’ve introduced more squares. The colouring’s much the same, and there’s still a ton of movement, with lots of secondary shapes created by all those horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines.

The good thing about introducing flying geese is that their angles match those already in use in the design – so the sides of the geese are parallel to other lines in the design. Same with the central white squares. That helps to keep the whole design feeling coherent and less cluttered.

Here it is in a standard layout (with the blocks not on point).

I also tried replacing the flying geese with another shape – a triangle-in-a-square unit – but… nah. I don’t think it works well at all.

I’m not entirely sure why I don’t love these variations very much… they just feel a bit too busy and chaotic for me. The triangle-in-a-square units just add too many new angles that aren’t repeated elsewhere in the design, and it all feels very pointy and sharp. No thanks. But hey, I’m happy to share them anyway, because that’s what the Sunday sketches are all about: exploring design ideas, playing with shapes, and inspiring you to do the same.

These designs could be made using squares, half-square triangles, flying geese and rectangles. The standard layout above is an 8 x 8 grid, so 64 blocks total. Although you wouldn’t have to construct blocks before constructing the whole quilt – you could just make all the individual units and then piece them together in rows or columns. All the colouring is the same in all blocks, so you could chain-piece your way through them in no time.