Tagged: half-rectangle triangles

Sunday sketch #347

Here are the diamonds I mentioned last week. I’ve simplified the inside of the block by removing the half-square triangles (they’re just coloured as squares now), which also removes the internal octagon. (This is all compared to the past few week’s sketches; if you’ve no idea what I’m on about, start with Sunday sketch #344 and go from there!)

This first version feels like overlapping lace to me… that circular movement, and all the dark blocks overlaid on a white background.

Making the internal stars white instead of dark blue helps to lighten the whole design, although I feel like the overlapping effect isn’t as prominent. As usual, I can’t decide which one I prefer.

And here’s a throwback to last week’s design, with the internal octagon shape back again and the diamonds coloured in the opposite way to the background.

I like how an element that wasn’t even really obvious in previous versions of this block is now the most prominent. It just goes to show the difference that colour (and colour placement) can make in a design.

I’m sure I could go for another few weeks, tweaking this design to create new sketches, but you get the idea. If a block has enough elements, you can add and subtract small components to make a big difference to the overall design. And then one design sparks another, which sparks another… ad infinitum.

I’d love to see some of these designs as actual quilts. They’d be easy to construct – they’re just half-rectangle triangles, half-square triangles and triangle-in-a-square units – and they’re all block-based, so you could batch-sew similar components and/or pieces of the same colour. (I love planning how I’ll approach a new project 🙂 )

Sunday sketch #346

If I was any good at planning ahead with my quilt designs, I would’ve posted a Valentine’s-related sketch this week, but… I’m not, so I haven’t. Instead, you get the latest in a series of related sketches (check out Sunday sketches #344 and #345 to see where it started).

The original inspiration for this series of sketches was a strip of three triangle-in-a-square units, which I included as part of my first design for Tara Glastonbury’s #quiltfromabrief series that she’s currently doing on her blog and in Make Modern magazine. You can see my design on Instagram – and at the bottom left, that strip of three triangles. It’s not something I’ve used much before (one on its own, definitely, but not three together). Ooh, the possibilities!

So this is the first design in the series where all the triangles are actually coloured in. You can see the similarities with the past two weeks’ sketches – that inner star, surrounded by an octagon, with an outer shell of half-square triangles (and now triangle-in-a-square units). And, of course, with so many elements in the basic block, there are loads of colouring options.

I always like the simplicity of a two-colour design (or three, if you count white), but multiple colours are good too.

And here it is in the same warm palette I’ve used before.

I think this design is quite ‘traditional’ (as opposed to ‘modern’) in a lot of ways, and I can certainly amplify that through colour placement.

Flipping the blue and white gives a somewhat similar look and feel…

Whereas flipping the green and blue produces a transparency effect that really highlights the circular movement around the design. I love this one! It’s one of my favourite versions. But it definitely feels traditional. Not that that’s a bad thing 🙂

A checkerboard background retains a lot of the circular motion, but is getting a bit too busy for me.

I also ‘opened up’ the designs a bit by adding more background colour (white) within each block – changing the corner pieces around the octagon to the background colour creates a square within the block and makes those corner triangle-in-a-square units a bit more obvious.

Funnily enough, I think the two-colour version feels busier than the multicoloured version. I’m not sure why.

I feel like this last version also emphasises those diamonds created by the triangle-in-a-square units between adjacent blocks. I’ll play with those more next week!

 

Sunday sketch #343

I was digging through my old sketches and found this one, which I created when trying to come up with new half-rectangle triangle designs. It’s a bit like Sunday sketch #320, but sufficiently different to be worth posting, I think.

(This is maybe not a great colour combination to have chosen, as it can create chromostereopsis – a chromatic aberration where blue and red in proximity can give the impression of depth in an image or be harder to view. Or just seem a bit wonky. Sorry. I was too lazy to change it.)

Did you notice that the negative space within the design creates the same shapes in blue as there are in red? I love it when that happens.

So the half-rectangle triangle parts of the design are very similar to Sunday sketch #320, but the half-square triangles are oriented differently here, and the layouts are also different. It’s funny how such similar blocks can create designs that are quite unalike.

I’ve alternated the block colouring in the next version, so the four corners aren’t spiky anymore.

This design reminds me of a plant in Australia called Sturt’s desert pea, which has bright red leaf-like flowers that extend vertically from a black centre point.

Arranging the blocks on point helps to position the ‘flowers’ vertically. I like how all the lines from the HRTs create movement across and down the design.

The blue shapes in the middle might be easier to see in that last version.

This week’s sketch could be made into a quilt using 2:1 half-rectangle triangles, half-square triangles and squares. I’ve only shown two-colour versions here, but I guess it could work with a larger palette?