Category: Sunday sketch

Sunday sketch #328

The block in last week’s Sunday sketch featured two half-square triangles whose long faces (or hypotenuses, for all you math fans out there) faced each other. By swivelling each HST by 90 degrees, I created a diagonal line running across the whole block, which (when rotated) introduces new lines to the whole design. Here, I’ve coloured one side and left the other side as the background colour.

Here it is in a palette closer to last week’s.

Because the design ends up looking like alternating blocks that are set on point, it lends itself to two-colour palette. I like colouring the outermost units so that the minor feature (in this case, the curvy pinwheels) are highlighted and feel like they’re floating against the background; otherwise, the design feels a bit ‘blocked in’ to me.

I like how the horizontal and vertical lines in the curvy pinwheels suggest another (subtle) grid across the whole design that balances out the diagonal grid, while the curves keep everything feeling more gentle and less harsh. (Sometimes I wonder if any of the things I write make sense, but I reckon there must be other people who feel the same in reaction to shapes.)

This design reminds me a bit of Sunday sketch #215 (another favourite of mine) – a simple combination of curves and HSTs that creates a diagonal checkerboard effect. I wish there were enough hours in the day (and money in the bank) to make all the quilts!

 

ps. I messed up when drafting this post, and ended up publishing it immediately instead of scheduling it. Doh! So some readers will have been confused on Friday 23 September when they got the automated email. Consider yourselves lucky to have witnessed only the second scheduling mistake in over 6 years of Sunday sketches 🙂

Sunday sketch #327

I’ve been reusing many of the same elements in recent designs – I seem to be stuck on semi-circles at the moment (think Sunday sketches #314 and #317). Expect to see them for the next few weeks, as this week’s Sunday sketch led to a whole series of related designs. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here’s where it started:

So it should be fairly easy to see what the block is here – a sort of four-patch with two diagonally facing (‘kitty corner’ for you US folks) half-square triangles, and two diagonally facing semi-circles. Rotating the blocks creates nice curvy pinwheels alternating with quarter-square triangle units on point.

Rotating the blocks again can create an entirely new design – quite a wacky one, but I like it! My choice of colours here also helps create that transparency effect.

Taking away the half-square triangles changes the look once again. I don’t love either of these next two designs – I feel like the checkerboard background obscures the curves. But it’s always fun to play, even if the outcome isn’t what I expected.

Speaking of playing, I kept going with these shapes, so I’ll show you the iterations in the coming weeks.

This week’s designs could be made into quilts using half-square triangles and half-circles (or two drunkard’s path units or quarter-circles). It’s a block-based design with a limited palette, so lots of chain-piecing of similar units. I always say that! 🙂

 

Quilt pattern: Paperdrop

I’m excited to announce the release of Paperdrop, a quilt pattern that I developed in partnership with Latifah Saafir for the launch of her new HuRTy ruler.

A multicoloured quilt hangs against a pink wall. The quilt features half-rectangle triangles in 6 different colours against a black background.

Latifah approached me awhile ago to see if I’d be interested in designing a quilt pattern for her new ruler. Umm, YEAH! Latifah’s quilts are some of the first modern quilts I ever saw, and were a revelation to me – I had no idea there were fabrics or designs out there like that. Her work was instrumental to me choosing to pursue modern quilting. So of course I jumped at the chance to work with her.

The HuRTy 1 (there are two more in the pipeline!) makes 2:1 and 6:1 half-rectangle triangles up to 12″ high. So we got to work coming up with ideas – lots and lots of ideas – for quilts featuring 2:1 HRTs (probably the size most people are familiar with). But we kept coming back to an old Sunday sketch of mine from 2017: Sunday sketch #31.

A black and white hand-drawn sketch on paper, featuring half-rectangle triangles descending in ribbons down the page.

I never made this one, because I wasn’t entirely sure how to construct it (as it’s shown in the sketch, it would require a lot of partial seams). Also, although I’ve designed quite a few sketches with HRTs, I don’t often make quilts with HRTs. I’d use the two-at-a-time construction method and get annoyed at how much fabric I’d be trimming off. But I couldn’t make large HRTs with the one-at-a-time method, because the ruler I’d co-opted for the task (the side piece from a triangle-in-a-square ruler) wasn’t big enough. The whole process was too annoying.

Paperdrop is a great design for using the HuRTy, because it requires ‘A’ and ‘B’ HRTs – in other words, HRTs facing both directions. The HuRTy is designed specifically for cutting and trimming both directions of HRT (and even for trimming off the little corner bits so you can line up your triangles for piecing). Suddenly making HRTs isn’t annoying anymore!

The Paperdrop quilt pattern is available from Latifah’s website, along with the HuRTy and two other HRT-based quilt patterns. There’s a lookbook with different versions of all the quilts, FAQs with more info on The HuRTy, videos on how to use the ruler, and more. And during launch week, there are some awesome discounts!

My version of Paperdrop uses all Kona cotton solids and was quilted by Valerie Cooper of Sweet Gum Quilting.

Head over to Latifah’s website now for Paperdrop pattern and The HuRTy ruler!