Often when I create a lot of different designs from one block, I’ll post them all in one week and just describe how I got from one to the next. But I decided that the current series of sketches – which started last week and will continue until mid-March – are sufficiently different to each warrant their own post.

I’m using the same basic block as last week: a half-circle, quarter-circle combo. But this week I’ve rotated alternating blocks, which eliminates the clamshell shapes and creates new shapes instead. And again, I’ve used colour placement to ’empty out’ some of the shapes, to reduce the ‘weight’ of the design (a term I just made up to explain how some designs make me feel…) or to play with negative space.

In the previous version, there’s clear empty space between those diagonal strands; in the next version, the shapes are connected horizontally in a more jagged way (although there’s still some diagonal movement).

With a larger palette, there are more options for colour placement….

I feel like the regularity in these designs allows for a bit more colour play without becoming too overwhelming or busy.

As these designs are block-based, you could make them into real quilts in the same way as last week’s. I’ve since discovered that Tara Glastonbury, who has used this shape in one of her own quilts, created a template for the 3 shapes within each block. I had originally thought of making either the half-circle unit or the quarter-circle, then subcutting it to add the other unit… but maybe templates is the way to go?