Sunday sketch #336

I don’t normally do improv or random, but this week’s Sunday sketch ended up that way (in appearance, if not in design).

This is actually a block-based design, but with multiple elements of each block coloured in a way that kinda hides the repetition.

It started as a much more recognisable design – a wonky nine-patch. Here it is in a standard layout, with 5 colours per block: the dark blue centre, and then 4 colours each for one of the long sides and small corner pieces. Then rotating the blocks creates some fun movement.

But after starting with the standard layout, I played around with the block placement and colouring. I kinda like how a fairly traditional block can feel more modern just with a few tweaks. I’ve seen some quilty conversations lately around the definition of ‘modern quilting’, and examples like this design make me question what counts as ‘modern’. I’m not sure I know.

Anyway, I like how far the first version of this design feels from the others. I can see the origin when I look at it, but I’m not sure it’d be completely obvious to others.

if I was going to make it, I’d probably rework it further to try and obscure as many of those vertical and horizontal lines as possible – they make it a bit too obvious where the edges of the blocks are. There are some areas where the colouring of the pieces makes those borders less clear, and I’d aim to achieve that more consistently across the whole design. I’ll keep playing with it.

I’m not sure if I’d piece a normal nine-patch and trim it down to the wonky version, or if I’d just use templates to cut the wonky shapes and then piece them together. The former would probably be more accurate, but the latter might be less wasteful.

 

Sunday sketch #335

More Excel designs this week. I wish I’d used a different colour in these designs – this blue feels too cold to me – but I’m too lazy to change it. (There’s probably a quick way to do a replace-all of coloured cells in Excel, but I’m too lazy to find it!)

I like this offset cross that appears in the centre of the design as a result of a series of corners lining up diagonally in all four quadrants. I guess the four quadrants of the design could be made using large log cabin blocks. The strips can be extended to the edge of the design too…

…or angled round more corners to create discrete rectangles. Now there are four more crosses in addition to the centre one.

There are other ways to play with that central cross. If you look closely at the next design, you can see that it’s a series of closed loops of varying length, connected to one another in pairs (apart from the four smaller rectangles floating at the far corners).

Or it can be simplified further – again retaining that central offset cross.

Like last week’s sketch, this week’s designs could be made into a quilt using long strips. I’d find it easiest to make up templates, and maybe even to use paper-piecing to get the strips sewn nice and straight.

Doing one of the simpler designs as a super-sized quilt would look great, I think. I’ll add it to my list… 🙂

Sunday sketch #334

I’ve been playing with Excel a bit lately. It’s a fast and easy way to create quilt designs that feature squares or strips. I just set the sizing of the rows and columns so that the cells are square, then fill the cells to create the shapes.

For whatever reason, I haven’t designed with other shapes much lately. I’ve been busy with quilty deadlines and work and life, and just haven’t made much time for intentional creativity. I’m not worried; I’ll get back to it. But for now, and maybe another week or two, the Sunday sketches might be a bit simpler. But no less interesting!

This is almost like a cross between Frequency (which Modern Patchwork magazine called Sound Maze) and Sunday sketch #194. Notice how the three columns are made from completely separate lines that don’t extend outside their own column? There are a few floating rectangles in the middle column too.

I kept playing with this concept, but decided to colour in some of the whitespace…

You can see that I changed a few things in the middle column in that one, too. I kinda like the balance in this one, but my eye can get a little lost in all those lines.

So I kept playing, and found a simpler variation. Again, the rows might look like they’re interacting, but they’re each made of a completely separate continuous line.

My Excel workbook has another 10 or so sheets in it with additional variations on this theme; it really does have endless possibilities. I’m not sure if I’d ever make one of these designs into a quilt – I find it difficult to piece long narrow strips and keep them all straight. But you never know!