Category: Sunday sketch
Sunday sketch #312
This week’s design is the logical progression from last week’s: the same zig-zagging motif, but without the curves.
It works in the other orientation too.
That second version’s quite busy; I think perhaps a 4 x 6 layout of blocks (rather than the 6 x 8 layout I’ve used here) would be better – that would allow the zig-zaggy design to have impact without being overwhelming. The wide borders help to rest the eye, too.
This design would be easiest to make into a quilt using paper piecing. The internal shapes are not quite half-rectangle triangles, although the block could probably be tweaked to make them proper HRTs, which would then allow you to use standard piecing. Otherwise, each block would require two identical (triangle-shaped) templates. As there are only two colours per block, it would be pretty straightforward to make. It’s a bit reminiscent of Northern Lights, which was based on Sunday sketch #124, though that one was a bit more complicated.
Sunday sketch #311
Combining two motifs today – a curve and some sharp points.
This week’s designs started with a simple block: a circle with some internal zig-zags (similar to two adjacent half-rectangle triangle units). Here’s some alternative layouts and colourings so it’s clearer to see what I started with.
There are some interesting internal shapes in there, which you can see if you get your eye in.
I used colouring to emphasise only one side of the circle in the first design. It also works in a vertical orientation too.
This week’s designs would probably be easiest to make using paper piecing. I’d do the zig-zags first, then cut them out in a circle shape and piece that into a larger outer piece. Maybe a bit pesky, but do-able. Which is not to say that I have any plans to do it… 🙂
Sunday sketch #310
I ended last week’s post by promising to show some iterations of Sunday sketch #309 that are more traditional. But first, here’s a more modern-ish version.
To get more modern-ish versions, I find it easier to start with a full design and then take things away, rather than starting with a blank design and adding things randomly. Why is that…?
Anyway, on to some iterations that feel decidedly more ‘traditional’ to me.
This is essentially the same design as last week, but with the individual shapes coloured differently to emphasise each one. Actually, these variations still aren’t showing every single shape; for example, the vertical and horizontal diamonds in the next version are actually made up of four pieces (the side pieces of four triangle-in-a-square units). I’ve just coloured them in a single shade, otherwise my brain would go crazy from the bitty-ness of it all.
And of course, so many pieces means soooo many colour combinations, permutations and variations. This next one feels very Parc Güell to me – a bit mosiac-y.
If so many pieces are too many pieces for you, it’s possible to pare this design back to even fewer pieces than I used last week. This creates a layout of 8-pointed stars, separated at their corners by large squares.
And I can pare it back even further, allowing some of those inner octagons to stand on their own. I like how their edges still align with those of their neighbouring stars. This might be one of my favourite versions!
Finally, like last week, I can shift alternating rows of blocks across by one half-block, and the tips of the stars will still touch. This creates some new secondary shapes and some new movement in the design – instead of vertical columns of blocks, I now have angled stacks. This lends itself to new design variations too.
I stuck with the sawtooth star as the centre unit of these blocks because I wanted the link to last week’s designs to be clear. But you could replace it with any square-based unit… a nine-patch, a different kind of star, a circle even.
I love how a single block can look so different depending on how its components are coloured. I’ve always thought if I ever sold patterns, I could market the same one to two completely different target markets, just by changing up the fabric and colour placement!
