Even when I go through periods of sketching with pen and paper, I still use EQ8 to test ideas and create quick designs. Very often, the first idea leads to another, which leads to one more… and I end up with multiple iterations under the same general theme.

This week’s design is part of a series. It’s not even the most interesting part, but I felt like sharing it for a few reasons.

First off, who doesn’t love a bit of Mondrian? These black lines and rectangular shapes just lend themselves to primary colours à la Piet Mondrian’s grid-based paintings.

Second, this design scratches an itch I’ve had for awhile. I’ve often thought that I’d love to create a series of quilt patterns based on the work of famous artists. The Mondrian pattern could be something like this. The Dalí pattern would be all weird curves and unusual shapes. The Monet pattern would be based on the same basic block repeated, with the colours changing slightly (think of his Haystacks series). All the different yellows of Sunflowers could form the basis of a van Gogh pattern. And some combination of geometric lines could represent da Vinci’s art and work (like Vitruvian Man). What other artists or works should I include in this imaginary series?? I’ll probably never have the time or inclination to pursue this, but I like the idea. 🙂

This week’s design is all rectangles, squares and strips. A really easy design to translate into a basic pattern.

Mondrian’s work is such perfect quilt design inspiration that I did a quick search online to see if anyone else had used this idea as the basis of a quilt pattern. And I wasn’t disappointed – check out the Mondrian Quilt Block from Twiggy and Opal (note that the pattern is no longer available in Jayne’s Craftsy shop, but you can find it on her Etsy site). Fantastic!