I don’t have a favourite quilt block (I don’t really do favourites), but I do love a good eight-pointed star. (Basically a nine-patch where each pair of pointy bits fits into one square; contrast that with a sawtooth star, which is essentially a 16-patch where each pair of pointy bits takes up two squares). Here I’ve shortened the pointy bits so they’re half-way between a sawtooth star and an eight-pointed star.

That’s so it fits into the centre of another block, which the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns by Barbara Brackman calls the ‘rising sun’, wheel of luck’ or ‘wheel of fortune’ block. I’ve tiled the new block (which doesn’t have a name I can find, but I’m sure it has one) in a 4 × 4 layout and coloured each one differently.

If I add sashing, you can see each block a bit more clearly (but I prefer the layout without sashing).

There are enough elements in this block to mean that a simple palette of only three colours can still produce 16 unique colourings (at least!). Obviously with a larger palette, you’d have even more colouring options.

Here’s an alternating layout of the two versions I like the most.

And a layout of the two versions that probably have the simplest colouring. I like the big squares that are created in the spaces between the blocks.

I love how much designs can change through simple tweaks to colour placement or colour choice. And I particularly love how a single block can look so different depending on how you colour each element. I played with that concept in Sunday sketch #310, and it’s something that I’ll keep exploring.

This approach (and this week’s sketch) is not necessarily ‘modern’ (although if I tweaked the grid work and introduced some negative space, it probably could be), but I find it very useful (and fun) as a design exercise. You should try it!