Tagged: half-square triangles
Sunday sketch #320
There are so many lines in this week’s block that pretty much any layout creates lots of secondary lines, interactions and shapes. I like this crazy layout the most; it seems a bit random, but there’s order in the chaos.
Here’s the same block in a different layout; the top rows of the two designs are the same, but from then on, the blocks are rotated differently. In this version, the spaces between the black and white shapes almost end up looking like they’re slightly different shades of light blue, depending on which diagonal line of blocks you’re looking at.
My eye tends to see the diagonal lines of blocks going from top left to bottom right, but there are also lines going from bottom left to top right. They’re maybe a bit easier to see with the blocks in a single colour.
Using the reverse colourway in alternate blocks presents even more opportunities for different layouts.
Things can get pretty busy though….
Pointing all the blocks in the same direction helps to show the effect of alternating the placement of the two colours in adjacent blocks.
The angles in this block make it a great candidate for laying out on point. I feel like this layout changes the whole feeling of the design. (This particular version also has a diagonal grid of squares that isn’t so evident in other versions, thanks to the way I’ve coloured the shapes.)
This next version feels a bit more spiky than its standard-layout sister design. (Why is that?)
A hybrid of the previous two designs retains that diagonal grid of secondary squares (now bigger), plus the spikiness.
Many of these designs make me think of birds, so I couldn’t resist making one last version with a flock flying west.
These blocks, and all these designs, could be made into quilts using 2:1 half-rectangle triangles (twice as long as they are wide), half-square triangles and squares. There are 4 HSTs per block, so 4-at-a-time or 8-at-a-time methods would help to save time. There are also 2 HRTs of each orientation (left-facing and right-facing) in each block, so the 2-at-a-time method for making those would be perfect too.
Sunday sketch #317
I’ve been having fun with lots of basic shapes lately, and this week’s sketch is no exception. It’s another one featuring half-circles, quarter-circles and half-square triangles.
This design feels a bit celestial to me… those inner stars combined with circles that look like they’re straight out of a moon phase calendar.
There are so many minor variations possible with this design – for example, by alternating the colours of the inner stars or the half-moons.
I also like to treat some blocks differently from others. In the next version, I’ve filled in the outer half-moons for the outside blocks. This means the half-moons are only created when two octagons come into contact with one another.
And I can fill in all the internal shapes so that only the squares created from the 4 corners of adjacent blocks are white.
Or add more whitespace – this time filling in both sides of the half-moons so they become circles, and then colouring some of the stars white too. This changes the design quite a bit.
I also used that dark blue as a background for one of the earlier designs, but didn’t change the colour of the dark blocks. Now it looks like there are blocks floating in space, connected only by stars.
This Sunday sketch would be relatively easy to make into a quilt; you’d just need quarter-circles (drunkard’s path units), half-circles (if you want to save yourself making double the number of quarter-circles) and half-square triangles. And some versions don’t even use the half-square triangles.
Sunday sketch #316
I like playing with tessellations, and this week’s design is the first one I’ve posted in awhile. (Sunday sketches #296 and #297 were the last ones, I think?)
This design is based on a single block, repeated and alternately rotated.
If I colour the blocks slightly differently, you can see where the edges are.
The blocks can also be laid out on point, although I think I prefer the standard layout.
Rotating the blocks in a different way breaks up the tessellation but creates new and interesting secondary shapes.
Or they can all be arranged in the same way, but just coloured in an alternating grid to emphasise the shapes within each one.
As usual, I started with a minimal palette, but the design lends itself to a broader range of colours/fabrics.
This design could be made into a quilt using some pretty basic shapes: half-square triangles, half-rectangle triangles, and flying geese (if you want to save a few seams).
