I love a two-colour quilt design, especially when I can introduce big blocks of colour at opposite ends of the design.

This is just a single block repeated, with alternate blocks coloured differently to create a bit of movement and those bike-chain links connecting one side of the design to the other.

I realised after designing this one that the overall shapes are similar to Daisy Aschehoug‘s ‘Many Nested Curves’ quilt (see here and here), although they’re achieved using completely different block designs and construction. I know someone else did a similar block like Daisy’s a while ago too, though simpler, where partial curves in adjacent blocks combine to create a long connected loop, but I can’t find it! I’ll keep looking. (And Gosia Pawłowska of Quilts My Way did a fun ‘Bike Chains Quilt‘ too.)

Anyway, even with just two colours, there are soooo many possibilities. In most of the versions I’ve shown here, the darker colour is on the top, but once in awhile I put it on the bottom.

   

   

Here’s the design I actually started with – a fully tiled layout (this is an 8 × 8 grid), in a bit of a brighter palette.

I lowered the temperature a bit, and added a third colour to the palette (a very pale peachy pink, which looks more like a rich cream here). Then there are lots of ways the three colours can be positioned to change up the overall look.

   

They could make a fun fabric design too.

In the previous versions, the bike-chain links are zig-zagging diagonally across the design. I also tried setting the blocks on point, so that the links step down the page (or up), moving vertically and horizontally.

And again, introducing a third colour presents some opportunities for playing with particular shapes.

I still think I prefer the first version I showed you. Removing lots of the blocks and using chunks of colour at the top and bottom highlight the transition across the design and give the eye lots of places to rest. And who doesn’t love a bit of symmetry?

The basic block in these designs is a square with a circle in the centre (inset by a bit so it doesn’t touch the block’s edges), with one half of the circle bordered by another curve (which does touch the block’s edge). Adjacent blocks are rotated 180° from one another, and coloured so it looks like one runs into the next. Next week’s sketch uses the same block, so if you can’t quite picture it now, come back next Sunday 🙂

I guess the easiest way to make the circle (or half-circles, if you made them in two halves) and its half-border would be by using templates. I’ve never tried sewing a large narrow curve, but I guess there’s no reason to think it’d be any harder than sewing a large wide curve. My original design used a skinnier curved border but I decided I liked it a little fatter. You could make it fatter again, but I liked the size/balance in these versions.

I liked this shape enough to keep playing, so the next few weeks will feature related designs. Stay tuned!