Kathy K. Wylie

We wrap up our series on design exercise #1 this week with the results from the last of our five designers, Kathy K. Wylie.  We have been working on exercises from the book Fearless Design for Every Quilter, by Lorraine Torrence and Jean B. Mills (C&T Publishing, 2009).  For this first exercise, we chose a shape and used it to created four compositions utilizing different forms of visual balance.  To see the results from the first four designers, click on Hilary, Marnie, Joyce, or Karen.

Kathy chose to work with a swirly “S” shape, which looks a little like a musical symbol with a bump on one side.  She chose this shape, not only because it appears in her quilt “Flourish on the Vine”, but because she liked it and it interested her.  But she quickly realized that working with an asymmetrical shape presented some challenges and that she really had to focus on the negative space.  Her color scheme was black and gold and each border fabric was chosen to complement the type of balance in the composition.

Sample 1 – Crystallographic Balance

In this all-over design, Kathy tried to keep the spacing roughly even and to vary the angle of each shape enough to avoid creating a pattern.  She said it reminded her of stipple quilting and Karen agreed.  The group felt that the border complemented the design and noticed the attempt to match the border pattern at the mitered corners.  They concluded this to be a successful presentation of crystallographic balance.

Sample 2 – Mirror Symmetry

This composition portrays mirror symmetry on both the horizontal and vertical axis.  Kathy struggled to balance the negative space inside the four shapes and ended up making the width and height unequal.  Hilary liked the secondary shape formed in the negative space and felt like she was looking at a cathedral ceiling.  Joyce wondered if the scale of the design was a bit too small in relation to the size of the piece.  Again, the group felt that the border enhanced the design.

Sample 3 – Radial Balance

Although Kathy set out to create radial balance, this composition could also be considered an example of rotational symmetry.  This one was her – and Joyce’s – favorite!  The group felt that it was balanced and lovely, but Hilary wondered if something more could have been added to the inside space to enhance the design.  Karen felt the border fabric was particularly effective because of its repetition of the S shape.

Sample 4 – Asymmetrical Balance

In this asymmetrical composition, Kathy added the element of scale.  Hilary believed this was successful and that it gave the impression that the shapes were receding into the distance.  The others weren’t as convinced.  Marnie felt it seemed bottom heavy and Karen thought it looked crooked.  The group agreed that this piece could have been stronger.

Karen Menzies

We have been looking at the results of our first exercise from the book Fearless Design for Every Quilter, by Lorraine Torrence and Jean B. Mills (C&T Publishing, 2009).  Our challenge was to choose a shape and arrange it into four compositions using different forms of visual balance.  So far, we have seen the work of three designers:  Hilary, Marnie, and Joyce.  We continue our series this week with the fourth of our five designers, Karen Menzies.

Karen’s chosen shape was “the segment”.  As Karen explains, “When more than one segment is combined, the shape morphs into circles.  I found it liberating to be able to manipulate the segments into different shapes.”  This manipulation and metamorphosis tested us as the segments weren’t always obvious, but we are always up for a challenge!

Sample 1 – Vertical Balance

Karen’s composition portrays mirror symmetry on a vertical axis.  To emphasize this, she made the piece rectangular – taller than it is wide.  We felt the use of thick and thin parallel lines reinforced the vertical feel and appreciated the segments incorporated into the red border.  There was some discussion about scale and whether the “cookie jar” was too large for the space.  What do you think?

Sample 2 – Rotational Balance

Although Karen set out to create rotational balance, with each quadrant appearing the same when rotated 90 degrees, the result could also be considered radial balance.  All the elements both revolve and radiate from a central core.  We liked the many secondary designs that were created in this piece, including the eight pointed star in the middle, and the color scheme that was used.  We felt the many shapes created movement, perhaps even too much.  Joyce felt that her eyes travelled all over the piece not knowing where to rest.

Sample 3 – Asymmetrical Balance

We loved this one!  Simple color scheme, simple shapes, simple lines – with such a striking result.  In reality, there is a lot of complexity and many factors are working together to create asymmetrical balance.  Vertical lines balance horizontal lines.  Black balances white.  The red circle creates a strong focal point, although there was some discussion regarding its placement.  But overall, we felt this was a very successful composition.

Sample 4 – Crystallographic Balance

We were divided on this one.  Hilary and I felt this was a beautiful example of crystallographic balance.  With its allover pattern and no discernible focal point, we thought it should be printed onto fabric yardage!  Marnie and Joyce, on the other hand, considered it to be asymmetrically balanced based on the fact that the circles were different sizes.  But regardless of its classification, we agreed it was balanced, unified, and made good use of color.

Joyce O'Connell

We continue our series this week with the third of our five designers, Joyce O’Connell.  Our group is working on exercises from the book Fearless Design for Every Quilter, by Lorraine Torrence and Jean B. Mills (C&T Publishing, 2009).  For this first exercise, we chose a shape and used it to created four compositions utilizing different forms of visual balance.  If you are just joining us, you can go back and see the results from Hilary and Marnie by clicking on their names.

Joyce chose to work with an arrow, which could be classified as a complex rectilinear shape if you think of it as a combination of the two simple geometric forms of a rectangle and a triangle.  A straight arrow would be symmetrical along one axis but not the other.  Joyce enjoyed working on these compositions but felt she would like to do them again since she learned so much during the process about working with visual balance.

Sample 1 – Asymmetrical Balance

Although Joyce set out to work with asymmetrical balance, she was unsure if her piece truly reflected that.  We felt that it was asymmetrical and balanced for the most part even if the sense of asymmetry could have been stronger.  Hilary wondered if it might have helped had the arrows been in different sizes or materials.  I actually saw quite a bit of symmetry in the composition, with the two corner arrows mirroring each other and the remaining three distributed fairly equally from the center.

Sample 2 – Rotational Symmetry

It is clear, by following the arrows, that each quadrant is equal but rotated by 90 degrees.  We liked the strong color contrast, the excellent sense of movement, and the focal point created by the central squares.  Marnie questioned the impact on the overall balance caused by the unequal distance between the arrows horizontally and vertically.  Many of us commented on the narrow red borders.  Karen believed they made the four quadrants no longer equal and I felt they gave the piece a rectangular feel.  Having one end of each strip extend to an edge would have reinforced the feeling of rotation.

Sample 3 – Radial Balance

Again, there was no doubt about the radial balance in this composition with its obvious central point and the double-headed arrows spinning outward from it.  Good movement is produced as the eye follows the arrowheads out and in.  We were intrigued with the choice to present this piece on point and were mezmerized by the stark contrast of black and white.

Sample 4 – Crystallographic Balance

We all agreed that this was an excellent example of crystallographic balance.  The arrow heads move all over the black background equally without the eye focusing on any one in particular.  The strong contrast in color is effective and the border acts as a strong boundary.  Wonderful!

Marnie Mascioli

Last week, we started looking at the results of our first exercise from the book Fearless Design for Every Quilter, by Lorraine Torrence and Jean B. Mills (C&T Publishing, 2009).  Our challenge was to choose a shape and arrange it into four compositions using different forms of visual balance.  We continue our series this week with the second of our five designers.

Marnie Mascioli chose the letter “M” for her shape – I wonder why?!  She also chose black and white batiks that were opposite each other in color for her backgrounds and a fuchsia batik for her M’s.  We felt this color scheme was bold, strong and graphic with a high energy.  Hilary pointed out that the letter M itself is in the form of mirror symmetry vertically.

Sample 1 – Rotational Symmetry

Marnie set the Ms on point and alternated the background fabrics between black and white.  She also added a small M in the corners of an otherwise black border.  We agreed that the positions of the letter Ms suggested rotational symmetry although Karen speculated that the strong contrast in background fabrics suggested mirror symmetry.  Hilary and I both wondered about the orientation of the corner Ms and felt that the composition might have been more unified if all the shapes had been facing the same direction.

Sample 2 – Mirror Image Symmetry

Although Marnie set out to balance her composition with mirror image symmetry, she realized it could also be considered radial symmetry.  We all liked the secondary design – an eight-pointed star – created in the center of the four Ms.  We agreed that the borders formed a beautiful frame for the composition and that this was a very effective and balanced design.

Sample 3 – Asymmetrical Balance

In this composition, Marnie thought of her Ms as row houses sitting on the horizon.  Karen felt that placing uneven quantities of black on the bottom and white on the top resulted in good balance through color ratio.  She thought the fuchsia Ms created a strong focal point and Joyce liked the way they were positioned as if on the horizon.  While we agreed it had balance, Hilary and I wondered if perhaps more could have been done to add to the asymmetrical feel of the piece.

Sample 4 – Shifted Row Symmetry

This was Joyce’s favorite composition from Marnie.  She felt the impact of the fuchsia against the black background was very dramatic as each M alternated across the surface.  This piece could also be considered crystallographic, based on the fact that there is an overall pattern without a focal point.  Once again, interesting shapes are formed in the negative space.  Some of us believed the composition would have been even more balanced with an odd number of columns and rows.

Hilary Rice

Back in January, I wrote an article about the book Fearless Design for Every Quilter, by Lorraine Torrence and Jean B. Mills (C&T Publishing 2009).  At that time, I mentioned that a group of fellow quilters would be completing exercises from the book and that I would be sharing our progress here with you.  Exercise 1 has now been completed and here are the results from the first of the five designers.

The assignment began with choosing a shape.  (See the articles previously written on the element of shape.)  The challenge was to use our shape to create four compositions utilizing different forms of visual balance  (See Balance Part 1 and Part 2).

Hilary Rice decided to use a circle as her shape.  She felt that it was both simple and the purest of all shapes.  She used blue fabrics for her compositions as well as foil and free-motion stitching.  The group agreed that Hilary’s color scheme was effective and conveyed a sense of calmness and tranquility.  And we loved the foiling and stippling!

Sample 1 – Rotational Symmetry

Each quadrant in this piece is the same, whether rotated or mirror-imaged, and it is well balanced.  I loved the effect of transparency created by the thread work, where the foiled shapes appear to overlap the navy blue circle.  Did you realize that the “orange peel” shape is a derivative of overlapping circles?  Karen thought it had a strong sense of movement – it even looks like a propeller!

Sample 2 – Radial Balance

In this piece, Hilary used thread work to create a circle as the central core and blue spokes to radiate and rotate around it.  Once again, I saw interesting derivatives of the circle shape in the navy blue fabric and the foiling.  We agreed that this composition is visually balanced and unified.

Sample 3 – Crystallographic Balance

Hilary thought that scattering circles would be simple – like polka dots.  But in fact, she found it difficult to place them randomly enough to appear scattered.  She couldn’t resist adding a stitched circle in behind them to add unity, and this prompted some discussion.  We all felt the stitched circle was effective, but we wondered if it created a focal point and thus counteracted the idea of a crystallographic all-over pattern.  Regardless, we agreed that the composition was visually balanced.

Sample 4 – Asymmetrical Balance

This is the composition that appeals to Hilary the most and we all enjoyed it too!  Marnie thought the positioning of the inner and outer circles along with the differences in scale added interest and created harmony and balance.  But there were some differing opinions regarding its balance.  Much of the discussion revolved around the navy blue circle.  Joyce pointed out that the use of a dark color brought that circle forward and I noted that it made it visually the heaviest.  Karen felt there needed to be more in the top half to balance that weight.  What do you think?

Something interesting happens when octagons are joined together with other octagons.  A second shape is formed:  a square.

When octagons are arranged this way in a quilt, the design is called Cobblestones.  I have had a bit of experience with making Cobblestones.  The first was a sample for my English Paper Piecing by Machine workshop, made using thirties reproduction fabrics.

The title of the workshop indicates that octagons are sewn together using English paper piecing – just like hexagons.  The second time I used the Cobblestones design was during a round robin.  This is how Gail’s quilt looked when it came to me. 

I knew she wanted to display her quilt over the back of a sofa, so I decided to add borders to two sides only and turn the square into a rectangle.  My borders were Cobblestones.

A popular patchwork block that features the octagonal shape is the Snowball block.  In this case, four triangles are added to complete the square.

These triangles can easily be disguised by using the same fabric in the sashing or borders.

This quilt features the Snowball block alternating with Four-Patch blocks.  With careful fabric placement, the shape of bow ties is formed between the octagons.  The art work in each octagon was provided by a group of second grade students as part of their unit on Traditions and Celebrations.

In this Snowball Variation block, constructed on a nine-patch grid, the center square is filled with the same fabric as the corner triangles.

The block Greek Cross subdivides four of the nine-patches into rectangles…

… and the Grecian Square block rearranges the coloring to create a different effect.

This final block featuring the octagonal shape is called Cross Roads.

Of course, what intrigues me with this block is the secondary design formed when the blocks come together.

Each of these blocks can be constructed with traditional piecing methods.  So the good news is that you can have octagons in your quilts without English paper piecing!

Consider this lovely piece of fabric:  Mezzanine by Patty Young for Michael Miller Fabrics.

If we were to cut six equilateral triangles from the same exact locations in the fabric design and then sew those triangles into a hexagon, marvelous kaleidoscopic images would result.

This is the basic premise behind the wildly popular One-Block Wonders books by Maxine Rosenthal and Joy Pelzmann (One-Block Wonders, One-Block Wonders Encore!, and One-Block Wonders Cubed!, all with C&T Publishing).  Put all those hexagons together in one quilt and imagine the results!

When hexagons are divided into three diamonds, the result is known as a Baby Blocks quilt design.  If the diamonds are colored correctly, they create the illusion of three-dimensional cubes.

Who knew hexagons could be this much fun!

I discovered numerous blocks based upon the hexagonal shape.  Let’s take a look at some of them:   

Star of Bethlehem
Six triangles surround an open hexagon.  

 Six Pointed Star
The interior hexagon is divided into six triangles.  

Hexagonal Star
A hexagon is divided into diamonds, and six of the diamonds form a star.  

Star of the East
The interior hexagon is filled with six diamonds and six triangles.  

Mexican Star
The interior hexagon is still filled with six diamonds, but now the star is on point.  The triangles surrounding the hexagon are divided into two triangles and a diamond.   

Sam’s Quilt
The interior hexagon is surrounded by rectangle and kite shapes.   

Wisconsin Star
The star points surrounding an interior hexagon are filled with square, triangle, and chevron shapes. 

 Sylvia’s Choice
The hexagon and the six surrounding triangles are divided by straight lines running from each star tip.  The star is surrounded by a circle shape. 

Savannah Beautiful Star
Only the hexagon is divided and the star points are surrounded by fan shapes. 

Roulette Wheel Star for Nevada
Hexagons are nested throughout this complex block.  A large hexagon is surrounded by a circle; a medium-size hexagon is formed by six triangles and another fits inside it; and the center hexagon is divided into six kite shapes.  Did I miss any?

 Colorado
A large hexagon contains a Star of Bethlehem block with a circle in the middle.  The outer star points are divided to create triangles with diamond tips. 

Sawtooth Star
The interior hexagon is divided into six triangles, but it is barely visible.  All of the large triangles are divided into smaller triangles to create the sawtooth effect. 

Unnamed
A six-pointed star is surrounded by six hexagons.  (Blockbase references Safford and Bishop Pg. 119 for this unnamed block.) 

Columbia
Six hexagons appear to float around six diamond shapes.  Each hexagon is divided into three diamonds to create the illusion of three-dimensional boxes. 

Are you surprised to see so many unique block designs incorporating hexagons?  These blocks look stunning on their own, but how do they work side by side in a quilt layout?  This is where hexagons get really interesting.

Let’s look again at the Star of Bethlehem block and see what happens when four blocks are set side by side in a horizontal layout.

The hexagon and six triangles don’t fit evenly within a square, so the secondary design formed by the four blocks looks awkward.  Compare the horizontal layout to this layout:

Better, right?  What is the difference?  The second quilt is based on a one-patch layout, which allows the blocks to nest against each other and share the common triangles.

What about the Mexican Star block?  Compare the block in the two layouts.

Again, bringing the blocks alongside one another and sharing common triangles creates a more unified design.

There’s more!  Next week, we’ll look at six-triangle hexagon designs and three-diamond hexagon designs.

The next logical geometric shape to consider would therefore be the hexagon.  Why?  Well, what do you get when you put six equilateral triangles together?

Hexagons have a long and impressive history in quiltmaking and are more popular than you might think.  After all, sewing six sided shapes together would appear to have its difficulties.  But quilters throughout the generations have overcome these challenges to create stunning, creative and intricate quilt designs.

When groups of hexagons are colored in concentric circles, the resulting design is known as Grandmother’s Flower Garden.  I was introduced to the design during my beginner quilting class and this block made it into my first sampler quilt.  Notice how the two elongated sides on the dark green hexagons make them look like leaves.

Years later, I made a full-size Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt.  My version features burgundy patches in the centers surrounded by light, medium, and dark shades of green.  Finishing the outside edges is one of the dilemmas presented by the hexagonal shape.  I chose to keep the uneven shape and finished the outside edges with a facing.  (I’ll tell you how to do this is in a future article.)

In 2004, I wanted to enter the Husqvarna Viking quilt competition.  The theme that year was color and, once again, I was drawn to the hexagon shape.  Its six sides corresponded perfectly with the three primary colors and the three secondary colors. 

I thought I could use this to create a unique color wheel quilt.  Starting with a white hexagon in the center, I could add a row of each primary color – in this case, cyan, magenta, and yellow.

Then I could add rows of the secondary colors formed by mixing cyan with yellow, yellow with magenta, and magenta with cyan.

Finally, I could fill the remaining spaces with hexagons of every possibly color combination in between.

And here is the quilt, called Trinity.  You can read more about how I made this quilt in the blog post from February 24, 2010.

How do you sew six-sided shapes together?  Most commonly, it is done with a technique called English paper piecing.  Each hexagon patch is basted to a paper foundation and then either whip stitched together by hand or zigzag stitched together by machine.  This also would make a good subject for a future article!

But next week, we’ll continue our look at hexagons.  We’ll discover some unique hexagonal blocks and we’ll see what happens when hexagons are divided into three parallelograms.

Equilateral Triangles
An equilateral triangle, or a regular triangle, has three sides of equal length and three equal interior angles of 60°.

When I think of equilateral triangles in quilts, I think of Thousand Pyramids.  As I was doing a little research into this quilt design, I realized that it isn’t limited to equilateral triangles – any isosceles triangle will do.  That is to say, it requires two sides of equal length, not necessarily three.  Nevertheless, let’s take a look at Thousand Pyramids and some of its variations.

In this first example, equilateral triangles are sewn together into rows.  The second and alternating rows are mirror images of the first row.  The upward pointing triangles are one color and the downward pointing triangles another.

Another option is to color opposite triangles in such a way as to form diamonds.  This version is sometimes called Tumblers, although tumblers can also be a different shape altogether.

By off-setting the rows of triangles, Thousand Pyramids becomes Lightning.  In this coloration, with the dark triangles pointing down and the light triangles pointing up, a Dog’s Tooth design is created.

But by coloring the upward-pointing and downward-pointing triangles as a row, you get the Streak of Lightning effect.

Scalene Triangles
A scalene triangle has three unequal sides.  The interior angles may vary, but for quilters one of them is usually 90°.

This block is called Double Z and it has both scalene and isosceles triangles.  The light and dark violet patches are the scalene triangles.

Often, scalene triangle patches are found in blocks where a rectangular patch is divided in half diagonally.  Such is the case in this Nosegay block.

This example is just full of scalene triangles.  The block is called Cool Fan – just what we need in this summer heat!

Acute and Obtuse Triangles
These triangles are identified by their interior angles.  An acute triangle has three interior angles that are less than 90° whereas an obtuse triangle has one interior angle which is greater than 90°.

Many of the scalene triangles in the examples above are also acute triangles.  Patchwork blocks with obtuse triangles tend to also have acute triangles – which makes sense when you think about it.  In The Priscilla block, obtuse triangles fill in the space formed by the acute triangles.

I really like the look of this block set on point.