After a few weeks of mega-colour, I’m back to a two-colour palette this week. There are probably ways that this design could accommodate extra colours, but sometimes less is more!

I’m so smitten with this week’s sketch. It’s a really simple design but just feels fun!

As usual, I started in one place and just kept iterating. There are quite a few places I could’ve stopped – points at which I’d reached a version I’d be perfectly happy making into a quilt. But I just couldn’t help trying one more thing….

The starting point was an alternating grid of two blocks: a quarter-square triangle block and a 25-patch checkerboard block. This is a standard layout of 7 × 7 blocks. (When I say ‘standard’, I mean a layout of columns and rows that run vertically and horizontally, respectively; not laid out on point.)

How cute is that?? There are grids upon grids upon grids: in the checkerboards themselves, in the arrangement of the checkerboard blocks, and in the background squares created by the quarter-square triangle units. But somehow the design doesn’t feel too busy. The empty border helps.

   

   

I decided to mix things up a bit by extending the blocks out to the edges of the design, filling in that border a bit. I used solid blocks to begin with; they disrupt the design a bit (not necessarily in a bad way) by interrupting the layout… I haven’t followed the same arrangement of blocks as in the centre of the design. But the solid outer squares add another fun dimension: suddenly there’s a pretty clear square emerging, which also helps to highlight the grid formed by the checkerboard blocks.

   

In the two versions above, I left the corners empty; in the next two versions, I’ve coloured them in to complete that larger background grid. These two are feeling very picnic-y!

   

I decided instead to replace the rule-breaking outer squares with rule-following checkerboard blocks. I came very close to using one of these versions as the featured image this week — I really like this version. An added layer of checkerboards kinda obscures those background squares a bit; they no longer feel like the focus.

   

   

I wondered if setting everything on point might introduce any new/interesting aspects. Sometimes rotating a design by 45 degrees can make it that little bit more interesting (it can also ruin it too haha).

You can see in these next few versions, I reverted to the layouts with plain squares around the outside.

   

   

So originally the checkerboard blocks were straight up and down; now they’re balancing on a pointy corner. And originally the quarter-square triangles had diagonal seams, whereas now those seams run vertically or horizontally. Now the background squares (behind each checkerboard block, formed by four quarter-square triangle units) are straight up and down, whereas previously they were balancing on their corners.

Anyway, I’m not sure these versions are any better than their equivalent standard layouts. So I tried replacing the plain squares with checkerboard blocks, as before.

   

But then I realised I could extend out the quarter-square triangle units instead. Now, this is interesting!

   

I have a tendency when switching from a standard layout to an on-point layout to just rotate the whole design – that is, keep the original square and just tilt it by 45 degrees. But it’s usually more interesting to fill the space with more blocks. So I extended the blocks in all directions to make up a fuller design overall.

Oooh this one is a favourite too. I like how the grid within a grid within a grid are all really visible in this version.

How would those same edges look in the standard layout? I’ve used fewer blocks here; in the layout above, I need an odd number of checkerboard blocks (vertically or horizontally) to end on the same colour I started with. I can get away with fewer in the standard layout to achieve the same effect.

   

   

Whereas the pointy edges (i.e. quarter-square triangle units) on the on-point versions look like the outsides of sawtooth stars, here they look like the outside of Ohio stars. It’s a subtle difference, but I think it does help to change the overall look/feel of the design.

I switch back and forth between preferring this version and opting instead for its on-point equivalent. The standard layout would be slightly easier to make because it wouldn’t require the setting or corner triangles that on-point layouts require. But otherwise they’d both / all be easy to make into actual quilts. You’d just need to make checkerboard blocks (squares, squares and more squares, but you could save yourself lots of time by making strip sets and sub-cutting), quarter-square triangle units, and a few solid squares.

I’ve added thin borders to most of these designs, just so the blocks don’t touch the quilt edge – I like them to have a little breathing space. But you wouldn’t have to include them if you didn’t want to.

I’ve added this one to my list of makes (of course I have!), although in the time it took me to type that, I decided to add the on-point version instead. I can’t decide! 🙂

[Edited to add: Janet Jackson let me know that Debby Brown Quilts has a quilt pattern very similar to this sketch, which Janet made in 2022 – you can see Janet’s version on Instagram. I also found another version on Instagram and on the web. It seems the pattern is called ‘Cheer’ and was the April entry in the Color Blocks Quilt Along, vol. 1, which Debby did in 2021 and which still seems to be available as an on-demand course on her website. Like my sketch, Debby’s pattern combines a 25-patch checkerboard and a quarter-square triangle block to create a grid-within-a-grid design. The main differences are my addition of outer blocks and the colour palette/placement. Convergent thinking strikes again! Thank you Janet for letting me know!]