I’ve got an excel-lent design for you this week – a sketch that I made in Microsoft Excel 🙂

Excel is always great for designs that use straight lines and squares. I was a bit surprised to see that I designed this sketch back in December 2022 – almost two years ago!

I didn’t post it at the time, because I really wanted to try making it. I was convinced that there’d be a way to streamline the cutting and piecing to make the top come together really quickly. But I must’ve had other things to make first, because I put it on the back burner for a while.

(Although it probably also took me ages to decide what pair of colours to use. There are so many possibilities!)

   

   

The inspiration for this design was a pair of fabrics I’d bought ages ago (so no idea of the manufacturer or designer, unfortunately): one with red blocks against a white background, and one with white blocks against a red background. When I saw them side by side, I knew there’d be a way to use those stepped diagonals to split the two halves of a quilt design while retaining the spacing between the blocks.

It’s such a simple, striking design that I figured it might’ve been done before. I’ve certainly seen the same block before, but not in this arrangement. I searched high and low on Pinterest and online, but couldn’t find anything like it (but please let me know if you have!).

The same concept works vertically as well as horizontally, too.

And I even played around with other versions that featured more than one ‘split’ between the colours. I really like these versions too.

   

But, ultimately, I couldn’t get the original version and colourway out of my head. After trying a few Kona and Devonstone pairings, I finally settled on my fabrics and devised a cutting plan. I can’t remember exactly how long it took me, but it wasn’t long. I’m pretty sure I cut and pieced this top in a few days at most. Ta da!

That’s the actual quilt! I love how close it looks to the original design.

In the end, I broke the design into square blocks with pieced sashing, then came up with a simple strip-piecing approach to make assembly super-quick and easy. I chose an alternating baptist fan panto design, which was quilted by Valerie Cooper of Sweet Gum Quilting.

Even months after finishing this quilt (and years after first designing it!), I’m still so chuffed with this one. The combination of simple, striking design and streamlined piecing ticks all my boxes!