Category: Sunday sketch
Sunday sketch #309
Australia got a new prime minister this week, so it feels like the perfect time for a bright and happy multicoloured design.
This design is a single block on repeat. Although the block is made up of a few different elements – which I’ll talk about later – I’ve stuck with only a few colours per block. I wanted to emphasise certain shapes, and not let the whole design get over-busy. One way to reduce busy-ness is to use the same colour in certain parts of all blocks – in this case, using white for that internal octagon in each block.
Here’s an even sparser colourway that matches the internal octagon to the background colour (white):
The centre of each block is a square that could fit just about any other type of block, but here I’ve used the sawtooth star – one of my favourites, and a traditional block that I come back to again and again. Sawtooth stars have several elements (the internal square and the outer half-square triangles), and they too can be coloured differently to create another variation of this design.
These blocks remind me a little of storm-at-sea blocks, as all the lines around the central square in each block meet the lines in adjacent blocks, creating movement that draws your eye round and round.
I added even more movement by colouring some of the shapes that emerge between adjacent blocks. (And added a border so your eye has somewhere to rest.)
The outer points of the blocks are positioned in such a way that shifting blocks along a bit still lets them touch by their tips. So I can stack them in tilting instead of vertical columns. Some of the movement from the earlier versions is gone, replaced by movement in new directions.
And the blocks in each row can be connected again, as before.
These blocks are created using a bunch of basic units. Each block is a 16-patch, with the central 4 patches merged to create a larger square that fits the sawtooth star. The 4 corner patches are half-square triangles, and the 4 sides (comprising 2 patches each) are triangle-in-a-square blocks (facing each other with their points touching).
Pretty much any block could be squeezed into that inner square – even a mini version of the same block. I like sawtooth stars cos they’re simple and easy to make, but also just cos I love the way they look.
I could’ve kept iterating this design to try and create one with a bit more negative space, but then you’d lose a lot of that movement, I think. And not every design needs to be ‘modern’ in that way… this one feels a bit more ‘contemporary’ than ‘modern’ (although don’t get me started on how to differentiate between the two…). It definitely has traditional leanings, and next week I’ll share variations that take the design even more in that direction.
Sunday sketch #308
I was so excited when I created this week’s sketch, I set it aside thinking I might actually make it into a quilt… I even bought fabric! But I’ve since been distracted by many other designs and ideas… and even used some of the fabric for something else. That happens more often than I’d like to admit…!
You can probably see how this sketch evolved from last week’s. I wasn’t going to post that one last week – I much prefer this design, and I didn’t think it was really necessary to show the precursor – but I ended up sharing it so I could talk about how easily different people can come up with similar designs.
But back to this week’s design. This version chops the ends off those chevron-y bits, and instead turns them inward, creating what look like squares that are on point and overlapping. The flying geese units topping each square are still there, and there’s still the opportunity to play with foreground and background colours (and negative space). Instead of there being a vertical straight line between blocks, there are now columns of smaller squares.
A more restricted palette helps to play on the repetition in the design and introduce some more movement, I think. Those internal background squares help to join diagonally adjacent shapes of the same colour, so your eye zig-zags back and forth across the design.
Those smaller flying geese can go uncoloured (or take the background colour), which changes the main shape into something with a cut-out rather than an extension.
It’s pretty much just another excuse for my usual palette of rose pink and bright orange.
There are a few different ways that this design could be made into a quilt. I’d probably make columns of flying geese and alternate them with columns of quarter-square triangle units or square-in-a-square units. My default is always to imagine designs in solid fabrics, but I think this could work with the right prints.
Sunday sketch #307
After saying on Instagram last week that I needed to design with flying geese more… here’s another sketch with flying geese – in this case, big and small and overlapping. I designed this series awhile ago as a stepping stone to another design. I wasn’t going to post it (I’m more interested in the designs that it led to), but I changed my mind as it follows nicely from last week’s sketch.
Also, I saw a lovely quilt pattern on Instagram that reminded me of this design, and I wanted to show how easy it is for two people to arrive independently at similar designs. See below for more on that topic!
So in this design, I’ve connected small and big flying geese, extending the bottom geese into chevrons and then overlapping these shapes. I like how a big group of these shapes look like a collection of buildings, like church steeples maybe.
That perspective can be turned upside down by rotating alternate columns of blocks, which adds a lot more movement to the design.
And the shapes can be extended to the bottom of the design. In this version, they look a smidge different in the very bottom row, as they’ve lost their chevron shape and are just plain flying geese again.
Recently when wandering around Instagram, I saw the Chevron Points quilt pattern from Julie at Running Stitch Quilts. (The pattern was released on Friday 13 May.) You can instantly see the similarities between that quilt pattern and this week’s sketch: the main motif is a chevron topped with a smaller flying geese unit. In Julie’s case, she hasn’t overlapped the motifs; rather, she’s alternated them with negative space. She’s also split each motif down the middle, allowing her to play with colour in a different way than I have. Isn’t her pattern gorgeous?
Often I’ve got a few sketches up my sleeve, and whether/when I post them depends on what I’ve recently posted, what kinds of shapes I feel like talking about, and generally just how I’m feeling about a particular design. If I see something similar to one of my unpublished sketches, I might shelve that sketch rather than posting it. But in this case, I thought it was a great opportunity to show how easily different people can come up with similar designs. I asked Julie if she was OK with me posting these designs and mentioning her pattern, and she graciously said yes. (I would’ve been OK if she’d said no; I know the time and effort involved in designing patterns, and I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. I’ve got plenty other sketches to choose from.)
There are a lot of quilt designers out there, and only so many shapes to play with, so it’s no surprise to me that two people can arrive at a similar design independently and separately. I find it fascinating! It’s one of my favourite topics of discussion. And, of course, I always love discovering new-to-me quilt designers and quilt patterns.
Next week I’ll share the design that this week’s Sunday sketch eventually led to. With just a few tweaks, it ends up looking quite different from this week’s sketch.
