Category: Sunday sketch
Sunday sketch #215
I love this week’s design – super-simple, but super-cute too. Sometimes the most basic designs have the biggest visual impact!
A limited palette (just yellow and white) makes it easier to see those curves winding their way across the design, connecting each block. They’re also visible in the reverse colourway. Honestly, I could make all the quilts in this yellow. I love it!
Two main elements pop out when you look at the design: the pinwheels and the background checkerboard. That still offers up lots of opportunity for different colour placement, even with a limited palette. Here I’ve only used two colours (yellow and pink) plus white.
Keeping the checkerboard consistent and changing some of the pinwheels…
Or keeping the pinwheels consistent and changing some of the checkerboard…
Or changing both the checkerboard and the pinwheels (and introducing one more colour)…
Saturating the design more, but keeping a few pinwheels white…
Or even fewer white…
Or none at all…
Replacing the yellow in the previous version gives you a monochrome version again, but slightly different than the first one. The outermost blocks are pinwheels rather than checkerboards, so the whole design now has a square edge. This emphasises the internal horizontal and vertical lines, too.
And, finally, a little bit of whimsy to end on. I was going to show what a section of the previous version looks like against a coloured background, but decided to keep these extra curves in. I like how they’re a little reminder of the internal curves.
Another reason why those little curves stayed in is because of how I designed the block in this Sunday sketch… and cos I was too lazy to change it when I realised there was an easier construction method.
Originally, each block was made from two drunkard’s path units and two half-square triangles (with each pair in opposite corners). When drawing in EQ8, I didn’t bother separating the drunkard’s path unit from the HST, to make it easier/quicker to colour in. But that meant that some HSTs are still attached to curves, so I couldn’t get that straight edge I was after. But I’m actually glad – those curves are a lovely little design feature!
Anyway, in hindsight, it would probably be easier to alternate two block types: one made from four drunkard’s path units (the pinwheel), and the other made from a quarter-square triangle (to create the checkerboard). If you chain-pieced a bunch of curves, I reckon a quilt made from this design would come together in no time.
Sunday sketch #214
For some reason, I took the notion to design a banana block. Yep – a block with two sets of curves that, together, basically resemble a banana. So I did that, but then mixed the blocks up so the bananas were facing different directions, and then coloured the design in such a way that the bananas aren’t so obvious anymore.
Now they look a bit like stacked coins, or maybe eyes peeking out. I originally coloured the design in yellows and oranges (and even brown! I don’t think I’ve ever used brown before). I couldn’t decide which one I preferred, so here’s both.
The original block featured two bananas, either facing one direction, back to back, or together to create a circle. I mixed them up in a 6 x 6 grid, and coloured the bananas differently in each block – one in that rich orange with a pale pink inner curve, and the other vice versa.
Then I decided to try single bananas, facing this way and that. I think I prefer this version; it’s less busy. Who needs that many bananas?!
Two things about me and bananas:
- I developed an intolerance to bananas in my late teens, after a lifetime of LOVING them. Now I can’t eat uncooked bananas… they make me really sick. Thankfully cooked banana (i.e. banana bread!) is OK. Phew!
- Whenever I say ‘banana’, I pretty much always have to say ‘this shit is bananas’ and then sing ‘B-A-N-A-N-A-S‘ from Hollaback Girl. Either in my head or out loud. Usually out loud. 🙂
This design would probably need templates to get the curves just right for making a quilt. I’m not sure I need to make a banana quilt right now, but it’s always good to have options!
Sunday sketch #213
I’m pretty sure I once said that the half-square triangle was my favourite quilt shape. But I think I’m changing my mind. I am loving half-rectangle triangles at the moment!
I feel like half-rectangle triangles just have more energy somehow. That sharper angle just gives it a more zig-zaggy zing somehow. OK, that sounds a bit wacky. But hopefully you know what I mean 🙂
The motif in this design – which is a bit like a bolt of electricity crossing the page* – has sooooo much potential. I created a bunch of designs along this theme, but these ones were some of my favourites.
* I say ‘page’, because I started off sketching this on paper, before moving over to EQ8 to speed things along.
Anyway, here are some more designs along the same theme. First up – the zig-zags arranged horizontally, in a limited colour palette.
Or arranged in a cascade. The design on the left follows a regular pattern in only two colours, while the one on the right has a more irregular pattern and an expanded palette of four colours. Funny how just a few small changes can make such a big difference!
Or back to the original, simplest version, with a vertical rather than a horizontal orientation. I probably should’ve put a border around this one to make it clearer against the white background of this webpage, but you get the gist.
These designs can be translated into quilt patterns using HRTs, HRTs and more HRTs! And some rectangles and/or long strips, too.
