Tagged: rectangles
Sunday sketch #31
Back to my Moleskine notebook this week, and a regular repeating pattern.
I don’t use my Moleskine squared notebook much anymore for quilt sketching; I prefer the smoother, whiter paper of the Rhodia dot pad. Still, I started this sketch on the Moleskin ages ago, so I decided to finish it there too.
I like the idea of making this with blues that cascade from light to dark down the quilt, almost like a rolling ocean wave. Despite the regularity in the design, there’s a lot of movement there.
Making this quilt design as shown could be a nightmare of partial seams (unless you like that sort of thing!). Instead, you could make each half-rectangle triangle from two smaller rectangles and two smaller half-rectangle triangles (divide each 2×4 unit horizontally and vertically to get four 1×2 units, and you’ll see what I mean). If the quilt were made in solids (and these days, it’s how I picture most of my quilts), you’d never really notice the extra seams.
Sunday sketch #21
I can’t quite figure out what this design reminds me of… a constellation? Modern blossoms?
When it comes to emphasizing parts of the design through colour and fabric choice, I’m not sure what I’d prefer – diminishing the small squares so they recede into the background, or highlighting them so they pop into the foreground? Or treating the isolated squares differently from those that form part of the stars/blossoms?
Construction of this design would be easy – it’s all squares, half-square triangles and rectangles.
Sunday sketch #14
I don’t usually work with a lot of colour in my sketches. I find it a bit distracting (and difficult) to think about what colour(s) to use and where to put them. If I’m happy with a design, I’m always a bit worried that adding colour will be taking it one step too far. The right palette and great placement can enhance a pattern; the wrong palette and poor placement can just as easily ruin it.
Having said that, I recently sketched a pattern that I’ve had in my head awhile and that needs a bit of colour to define the units and bring out the actual design.
Now I’m not suggesting that this pattern should be made in black, blue and red – those are just the gel pen colours I had available. But to achieve the look I wanted, I think 4 colours (including white (I know, I know, it’s not a colour…)) are necessary; 3 could work if you had the patience to plan them out carefully (I didn’t).
My intention with this design was to make sure there were no adjacent pieces of the same colour within each rectangular block. Of course, you could make this pattern with even fewer fabrics or colours if you wanted to, or use more colours at one end and fewer at the other for a gradated look. The possibilities – as always – are endless.
