On to something a bit different this week. A basic, repetitive, geometric design in a two-colour palette. (My go-to combo!)

This is a block-based design, although it may not seem like it at first glance. If you connect up all the horizontal and vertical ‘seams’, you can see that the blocks are square and alternate in colour and orientation.

I think this design works well in contrasting colours. Sometimes I use the ‘Randomize’ feature in Electric Quilt 8, but I don’t think it’s that random – I’m fairly convinced it serves up the same colour combinations in the same order every time! I keep meaning to test it…. Anyway! Here are a few more colourways. The 3D-ness of the design seems to change depending on the colours.

As I often do with two-colour designs, I removed some elements at either end of the design to reveal a different-coloured background. One colour at one end, and the other colour at the other end.

Ensuring that these versions are completely balanced means they are slightly longer/narrower than the original version, but I don’t mind. I like the rotational symmetry of these ones.

Probably the easiest way to make these designs into a quilt would be to make rows of half-square triangles with long strips in between, then set the whole thing on point. The original block looks like this:

Can you see how tiling and rotating this block would create the HST shapes on point, as well as the intervening stripes? This block could be made using a flying geese unit, a square and an HST. Or a flying geese unit and a rectangle with a snowball corner. But you’d have more seams than if you just used regular HSTs set on point with longer strips. Often the way I design something is just the fastest way to get it from my brain to the computer screen; it’s not always the most sensible way to make the design into a quilt.

I iterated this block to create a new design, so come back next week to see how they’re related.