Tagged: quarter-circle
Sunday sketch #319
This week’s design is a little bit related to Sunday sketch #313, although with lots of differences too. I guess they’re related more in concept than in execution.
The design features a square block, set on point, in a standard layout. The blocks are made mostly from half-rectangle triangles, with two half-square triangles and a single quarter-circle (or drunkard’s path unit). That first colouring, above, makes me think of cactus flowers. The ones below are more like wheat stalks.
Note that the first three versions have sashing between the blocks; the version below doesn’t. There’s enough whitespace in the blocks themselves to not let the design feel too busy, although I think I still prefer the versions with sashing. I do like a lot of ‘resting’ space in designs though.
The previous versions have coloured all the blocks the same, but of course you could use a different colour per block. And I’ve used gradating colours within each block, but that’s not necessary either. I avoided trying that though (see comment on busy-ness, above!).
This week’s design could be made into a quilt using half-rectangle triangles of different sizes/ratios, squares, half-square triangles, and quarter-circle (drunkard’s path) units.
I think this is the sort of block that you could mix in with other flower blocks for a more random garden-y feel. The same block on repeat is maybe too much for a whole quilt? But it would work well to break up other botanical blocks. I guess I need to design a bunch of flower blocks to test that out! 🙂
Sunday sketch #315
It’s probably pretty obvious that this week’s Sunday sketch is a direct evolution of last week’s. I didn’t even bother changing the colour palette!
I made one minor tweak to last week’s block design, then played around with colour placement. Although this first version is somewhat different from my usual designs, I really like the movement and sorta oddness of it. It’s like a spacey kind of treble clef mixed with a fleuron in a lava lamp.
If I colour the blocks differently, you can see the connection to last week’s design more easily. I’ve just replaced the half-square triangles from last week with larger curves. The columns of half-circles are still there.
This version makes me think of phases of the moon, or of light and shadow changing the appearance of the same object throughout the day.
The previous version uses different colouring for each row in the design; the next version uses the same colouring across the whole design (much like last week’s sketch).
Changing the colouring again – using just two colours per block – removes the horizontal and vertical lines from the design and emphasises those curves instead. Ocean waves?
This week’s designs could be made into quilts using just quarter- and half-circles (or drunkard’s path units) and rectangles.
The fact that I can’t decide which version I prefer means I’ll probably never make this one, even though I love it to bits. Such is life!
Sunday sketch #314
This is one of my favourite Sunday sketches in a long time. It combines two of my favourite things: a simple yet effective design, and an understated palette that I’ve used before. It feels a little retro, a little modern. I love it.
Colouring the blocks slightly differently introduces horizontal lines and makes it clearer where blocks begin and end.
And then rotating the blocks introduces new shapes and movement.
That last one’s maybe a bit too trippy, but I love the first two designs! Although I can’t decide which I prefer… I like the simplicity of the first one, until I see the second one and realise I like the added horizontal lines… but maybe less is more?! Arrghh. (This indecision is probably the main reason I don’t make more quilts!)
These designs could be made into quilts using quarter- or half-circles (or drunkard’s path units), half-square triangles and rectangles. I love the limited palette of just three colours, but perhaps the design is simple enough that it could work with a broader palette?
