Category: Sunday sketch
Sunday sketch #373
I designed the week’s sketch only a couple of months ago, but I’ve already forgotten what prompted it. The blockiness* and transparency remind me a little of Sunday sketch #246. (*possibly not a real word.)
I think maybe I just liked the colour palette. It kinda gives me the ick but I’m also really drawn to it. I feel like the dark brown squares (where the reddish orange and khaki green overlap) work really well.
I expanded the border a little to let the design breathe a bit; that first version’s very crowded and in-your-face.
I tried to refine the design a little by curving the edges of the ‘flower’ shapes, which introduces lovely new secondary shapes (the orange-peel units in dark brown). The curves of the flower shapes are maybe not quite right – there’s a point at the tip of each petal where two curves meet that’s a bit sharp for me. But I love those orange peels!
The first version of this week’s design could be made using squares, rectangles and half-square triangles set on point. The last version could be made using drunkard’s path units (or quarter-circles), rectangles and orange peels.
I’m mulling over ideas of what to make for submission to QuiltCon 2024 (submissions open on September 1 and close on October 31), but I don’t think this is a contender – the design needs more work. The palette though – that’s definitely on the shortlist! I just need to think up a four-colour design…. 🙂
Sunday sketch #372
Every now and then I’ll come up with a design that I just LOVE, and this week’s Sunday sketch is the latest example. I am smitten! It’s the perfect combination of fun and quirky and happy 🙂
I started with one ‘cross-weave’ block that uses three horizontal and three vertical strips of colour against a background. They look cute in a standard layout with sashing.
Then I made a new cross-weave block in which a four horizontal and four vertical strips of colour makes nine internal squares. They look good too, but maybe less ‘cute’ somehow.
But sticking them together in an alternating layout introduces an element of imbalance that instantly makes the design feel a bit, well, wacky. It’s because I designed the blocks with the sashing included, and the size of the sashing is a smidge different between the two different block types. Nothing quite seems to line up perfectly.
Then I added a third block, which has five horizontal and five vertical strips of colour (and 16 internal squares of background colour). Adding a few of those into the mix changes things up again.
I love it in a monochrome palette too. It’s like a patchwork of patchwork!
When I sat down to actually think about how to construct this one, I realised it’d be a bit more complicated than it might first appear. I couldn’t find a standard block size (10″, 12″, 14″ or 18″, for example) that was easily divisible by all the different numbers of strips in each block. In each case, the measurements needed to be nudged up or down a smidge to get to a multiple of 0.25″ (I’m not interested in cutting 1/8 of an inch…! I know they’re marked on most quilting rulers, but… meh).
I could get around that by making the sashing of each block a different size (essentially using the sashing to ’round up’ the cross-weave bit to a standard block size). It’s not an insurmountable problem, but just an added layer of peskiness that might make this fun design a little less fun to make. I’m still very tempted to try though! The unevenness of the sashing is part of its charm, I think, so it wouldn’t matter if the measurements were all a little improv-y – as long as everything joined together OK.
I think this design could work well with prints as well as solids. I also think the actual construction could be fairly fast, once you’d figured out the dimensions you needed (and practiced your scant quarter-inch seam; any minor deviations in the size of your seam allowance would really add up quickly in a design like this). The more I talk about it, the more I can’t wait to try it!
Sunday sketch #371
I mentioned last week that I love sticking stuff in circles, so – surprise! – here’s the next iteration of that design. I’ve increased the size of the central crosses and sashing so that I can squeeze in some eight-pointed stars where the crosses were.
Also, I think this might be my new favourite two-colour palette. Electric Quilt 8 says it’s Kona Oyster and Kona Torch, although I’m not sure they’d look exactly the same in real life.
The interstitial stars – the ones between the circles – are made from the sashing between the blocks. So they can go around the edges of the design too, and the centre squares can be coloured the same as the star or different. Lots of options!
I quite like a limited palette for simple designs like this, and I always love that dirty yellow with an off-black.
Or this dusky raspberry with the charcoal black. Yum.
The arms of the stars are long and thin, so I’d probably use templates (or the forthcoming HuRTy 2 ruler from Latifah Saafir, which will do 1:3 and 2:3 half-rectangle triangles). I’m not sure how small I could make triangles like that (and still have them be nice and crisp and straight). I should try it and find out!
Otherwise, this week’s design would be as easy to make as last week’s: a bunch of quarter-circles (or drunkard’s path units), some squares (for the middle of the stars) and rectangles for the sashing. You just need to pick your colours! 🙂
