Apart from Sunday sketch #511, it’s been aaaaaaaages since I’ve done a purely triangle-y design. I set myself a brief recently – create a design using mostly triangles – and I really struggled! I need to put away the curves and get back to basics, I think 🙂

This design leans heavily on the approach I used for my very first magazine-published quilt pattern, Wildwood. A repetitive arrangement of triangle trees that nestle into each other, extending up and down as far as you take them.

It works with a consistent background (above) or with a different background at the top and bottom (below).

In the next two versions, I expanded the size of the forest (so to speak!) but broke the main design rule by not extending out the top- and bottom-most sets of triangles. But I don’t mind how it feels a bit more contained.

There are also lots of options for colour play…

…although I think it also works in only two colours.

But I do like those extensions in the original version, which draw the eye up and down a bit more.

This design is block-based (at least, that’s how I designed it in Electric Quilt 8), and is based more on flying geese-type triangles than half-square triangles. There’s probably a way to construct it on point using half-square triangles instead, but there might be some pretty funky seam placement. It would probably work well using paper piecing too, although each block would need at least two templates. (I’m just figuring this out by looking at the design now; I don’t often think too deeply about construction when I’m designing quilts!)

Anyway, I’m hoping to get more angle-y inspiration, so look out for more triangle-based designs in future Sunday sketches.