Sunday sketch #240

I don’t often design quilts with lots of long straight lines, because I know how much it would annoy me to make a quilt that needed that level of precision 🙂 I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so I try not to set myself challenges that I know will play on my worst characteristics!

But having said that, I’ve long wanted to design a quilt pattern that echoes the branching lines of a phylogenetic tree – the diagram that depicts the evolutionary relationships between living things. I saw one recently for genomic variants of the coronavirus.

So I set myself some rules (some of which I broke), and repeated sets of rectangles to create the feeling of going from large groups to small ones, and then even smaller ones.

Geometriquilt: Sunday sketch #240-1

I actually started with a vertical layout, and a different colour scheme.

Geometriquilt: Sunday sketch #240-2

But that layout didn’t give me enough room for different sized blocks, so I spread out sideways. And I kept it symmetrical, for a change!

Geometriquilt: Sunday sketch #240-4

I played around with a few colour palettes. I also decided I wanted to add even more blocks of different size, so inserted even larger blocks to the left of the design. This broke one of my rules, which was to use each block size in sets of 4. But I decided I didn’t have room for that approach after all.

Geometriquilt: Sunday sketch #240-3

After playing around with a few palettes, I hit on a design I liked. Then I decided I wanted it to be square(ish), so added another row (of large, medium, small, tiny and teeny blocks) at the top.

Geometriquilt: Sunday sketch #240-5

This design would be very easy to make into an actual quilt – it’s all rectangles, and the different sizes are all multiples of each other (e.g. 1 x 2; 2 x 4; 4 x 8; etc.). The hardest part would probably be counting up how many pieces you’d need of each colour, then keeping them organised after you cut them 🙂

Sunday sketch #239

Last week’s Sunday sketch included 10 versions of a single design, showing how much a pattern can vary by changing only the colour palette or placement. This week’s Sunday sketch continues on that theme using the same design. Here are 10 more variations!

Let’s start with a two-colour quilt design as a palate (palette!) cleanser 🙂

Geometriquilt: Sunday sketch #239-1

Just as a reminder of the shapes I’m working with in this design… there are ‘flower’ shapes (shown below in yellow) and the shapes created at their intersections (shown in pink). Both types of shapes have a star in their centre.

Geometriquilt: Sunday sketch #239-2

Even working with just two colours, there are plenty of ways to vary the design.

Geometriquilt: Sunday sketch #239-3

The basic versions of the design often let secondary shapes emerge… which I’ve highlighted below in pink. Can you see them in the design above as well?

Geometriquilt: Sunday sketch #239-4

Or I can take all the shapes within those secondary ‘circles’, and use the reverse colourway (yellow on dark blue, rather than dark blue on yellow). This is a bit more psychedelic…

Geometriquilt: Sunday sketch #239-5

Back to the more regular pattern… I removed the centres of the stars (colouring them in using the colour of the star’s arms). Those secondary patterns are still clearly visible if you get your eye in.

Geometriquilt: Sunday sketch #239-6

And then I played more with the star shapes… alternating the level of detail…

Geometriquilt: Sunday sketch #239-7

…and the colour.

Geometriquilt: Sunday sketch #239-8

Regular readers know that I often prefer the symmetrical, two-colour versions of my designs. So this next version is one of my favourites. I love how the four corner stars poke out of the overall design.

Geometriquilt: Sunday sketch #239-9

And the secondary shapes are still there. Highlighted here in white, just for effect.

Geometriquilt: Sunday sketch #239-10

It’s funny how the feel of this design changes, too. Some of the versions feel quite ‘modern’ to me, while others seem much more ‘traditional’. I’ve often struggled to define ‘modern’ when it comes to quilting, and I don’t necessarily agree with some of the definitions out there. (Also, I’ve often thought about setting up two brands to sell the same quilt patterns… one brand to sell the ‘traditional’ version, and the other to sell the ‘modern’ version. I’d love to know the overlap between those two customer bases!)

Anyway, I digress.

Like Sunday sketch #238, this design is just two blocks alternating in an 11 x 11 grid. One block is two half-circles facing each other; the other is an arrangement of 4 kite blocks. The only difference between all these versions is the colours – what they are, and where they go. And I have a million more variations on this design… well, maybe not a million, but certainly another 30 or 40 (at least). The possibilities are almost endless!

Quilt pattern: Diamond Days

I haven’t published a quilt pattern in ages, but I’m excited to show you Diamond Days, which is out today in Love Patchwork & Quilting magazine!

Geometriquilt: Diamond Days quilt pattern

Diamond Days is a paper-pieced pattern featuring a single block that’s rotated and repeated. The diamond shape features 6 facets, which means there’s lots of opportunity for featuring different colours and prints. I used a selection of 6 Kona Cotton Solids: Emerald, Cypress, Surf, Magenta, Dark Violet and Cerise. Definitely not my usual colour palette, but I really love it in this quilt! I also used Kona Cotton Solids in Silver for the background and Black for the diamond outlines.

Diamond Days was quilted by Valerie Cooper from Sweet Gum Quilting. She picked the perfect twinkly design to make the gems sparkle! I love Valerie’s work.

Unlike many of my quilt patterns, Diamond Days didn’t start out as a Sunday sketch. I submitted another design to the magazine, and then-editor Alice Hadley (no relation!) helped me tweak it. Here’s the resulting sketch, designed in Electric Quilt 8. Luckily the fabrics look much more vibrant in real life!

Geometriquilt: Diamond Days quilt design

If you’d like to make Diamond Days, you can find Love Patchwork & Quilting in newsagents and online. Issue 94 is on sale from today, 20 January. And no worries if you get the issue online; Love Patchwork & Quilting templates are always freely available on their website.

If you make this pattern, I’d love to see it. Tag me on Instagram (@geometriquilt) or send me an email!