Tagged: squares
Sunday sketch #184
I mentioned in last week’s blog post that I had more designs related to Sunday sketch #183 that I’d share in the coming weeks. Rather than stretch them out, I’m including them all in today’s Sunday sketch. Why not?!
These designs all play on the same theme of connected circles. I’ve coloured these ones slightly differently; rather than emphasising the swooshy curved shapes between the circles (like I did in last week’s design), I’ve highlighted the rectangular bit and used another colour for two quarters of each circle.
In the first design, the shapes extend from left to right. I like the sort of checkerboard effect that emerges as a result.
Of course, since I can never decide on a colour palette, I also made a version in which the colours are reversed…
I really liked the cascade effect in last week’s design. Each row of connected shapes had an upward trajectory from left to right, so I tried a downward trend for this design. It means that most of the circles on the left are part of a row of 5 connected circles (and 4 rectangles). However, the second-last row has 4 circles (and 3 rectangles), and the last row has only 2 circles (1 rectangle) – and vice versa at the top of the design.
You might be able to see what I mean a bit more clearly if I use a different colour scheme. See how each colour defines a row of connected shapes?
Keeping each line with the same number of circles and rectangles leads to a nice overall shape for the design.
How about alternating the overall shape while retaining the same downward trajectory for the rows? To do this, I needed to add a few rows again: first a row of 3 circles, then 2, then 1 on its own. I like those lone circles floating at the top and bottom! I also like how the rows step downward while the overall shape leans upward. Little features like that make me happy 🙂
Of course, other overall shapes are possible too. Quilty peeps love a hexie!
Like last week’s Sunday sketch, these designs could all be translated into a quilt pattern fairly easily. They’re all rectangles, squares and drunkard’s path blocks, with a bit of sashing and a lot of background fabric thrown in. If you used only 3 fabrics, there’d be a lot of identical blocks, which means a lot of chain piecing and a pretty quick quilt top!
Sunday sketch #176
I’ve been on a curve kick lately, mocking up a million designs in EQ8. ‘X’ marks the spot!
This design and colour palette totally make me think of a team shirt for a roller-derby squad or a bowling club or something. Like an 80s overload with neon. Super-cool!
I tried it in a few more colours, too. (The usual!)
This quilt design is on point and uses mostly strips and squares, with a few curved blocks thrown in. You could use templates for the curved blocks, to ensure that the lines were nice and evenly spaced. I think the whole thing would come together pretty quickly.
Sunday sketch #175
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!
