I have a new design in the Quiltmaker magazine January/February 2016 issue. The quilt pattern is called Prairie Sky. The folks at Quiltmaker chose the name and I think it matches their fabric choice perfectly. I originally named it the “Owl Eyes” as the block looked like a large pair of eyes staring back at me.
This design started as a doodle that I made while waiting for an appointment. Wherever you go, you should carry a sketch book with you. Try to find a small one that fits in your bag, as you never know when inspiration will catch up to you. I started by filing in the squares on the graph paper to create an interesting pattern. After sketching out a couple of repeats I looked for the base unit and marked with a couple of lines.
After I drafted the design into my Electric Quilt (EQ) program I colored it using only grey and black values for contrast. I next tried rotating the block in different ways to see what the design would look like. I decided I liked the original sketch best. After returning to the original version I toyed with adding different values and the placement of the values. Once I had the values and their placement decided I swapped the grey tones for a color.
Next I added borders to the blocks that supported the scale of the design. Then I went looking through my EQ Stash files for a fun collection to audition in this design. I found a number of current collections that I liked. In my EQ program I replaced the grey values with the new fabric choices. I think this design would look great in any type of fabric. If you make one please send me the images and I’ll post it on my web site.
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