It’s time for another round up of Quilt Design A Day designs! As a reminder, these are 15-30 minute sketches done in Adobe Illustrator based on inspiration images from design-seeds.com. If you are interested in trying out the QDAD challenge, feel free to join our Facebook group! You’re welcome to use whatever for your designsΒ (EQ7, Illustrator, inkscape, pen & paper, whatever!) and participate as frequently as you want.

When I made this design,Β I’d been doing QDAD for about 2 months and the repeats of common imagery was really getting difficult, especially if I felt like I’d had a really successful design using that theme already. This was a bird image and I made probably 5 different designs and disliked all of them. Now I think they’re fine, but at the time I think I was really searching for something unique and not finding it.

The original version of this had the offset element in the browns from the palette and I really didn’t like it. I think this might be the first time I realized it really was okay to not use every color from a palette. For some reason before that I considered it “cheating” even though the only rule is that there is no rules. This was the first step towards my more minimalistic work that I’m doing now. As for the design itself, I get sick if I eat sugar (this is a somewhat recent development and it makes me sad), so this design is kind of how I feel when I eat sugar and my response to all the design-seeds of beautiful looking desserts.

This is another design which shows what a difference a mental state can make. The design on the left was created when I was stressing out about a deadline, and the one on the right was created after I’d met the deadline.

I was playing around with a border treatment I’d seen on another quilt in the left one, but am not very fond of the design overall. The one on the right I’m going to make a small portion of just to prove that it’s possible. Designs like that are actually super simple to make in Illustrator. Not very easy to make in fabric, though.

Something that seems to show up over and over again in my designs is this concept of standing out or being unique. This particular design I was in a somewhat melancholy mood and I remember being drawn to the fingerprints in the photo. Which led me towards thoughts of identity and society and how I spent my early years trying to fit in and my later years trying to stand out and how I can be uniquely represented in a system with just a series of numbers. The UPC code doesn’t actually stand for anything (that I know of) but I really like this design.

I have to do a shout out here to the lovely people in our QDAD group. I posted the original version of this as a “failed design” in which I had thrown my hands up in frustration because I couldn’t get it how I wanted. With some suggestions of changing the scale and the rotation I was able to make this design which I think is actually one of my more successful ones!

More hummingbirds! I call this my NBC Hummingbird design because it reminds me of their peacock logo.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend! I’m off to do some ACTUAL sewing and hope to get a quilt top done of a more recent QDAD!
18 thoughts on “Quilt Design A Day”
Color Break, right…yesssssssss
Color Hand….mmmmm
Easter Hues….MODERN!
Hummingbird…I can hear the buzz!
I guess I’m going to have to follow up my bluff and actually work on color break now. π
Madam Weedy Whiskers sees lots of “fusible” in your future, lots. The crystal ball says so.
Hahaha I don’t mind fusible interfacing these days! Although piecing is still my preference. π
I doble dog dare you to make colour break
I’ve been considering how I’d make it. I need a drawing compass (which I have somewhere) and some fusible interfacing. No way am I piecing that crap.
I love Easter Hues so much. What an interesting note about the before deadline and after deadline!
I should have posted how Easter Hues started. It was just Not. Working. And it didn’t take very much to make it work out okay. π
My mental state seriously has a huge influence on my designs. I can look back at them and remember what was going on just based on the designs. π
Easter Hues is my favorite in this bunch but I can’t wait to see you work some magic with the kaleidoscope!
I really wish I could make quilts as fast as I can design them. I want to make a bunch of these! I recall I was going to do more minis but that hasn’t really seemed to happen yet. What’s up with that?
I’m working on one that has those folded Clover flowers–a pot of geraniums. Yeech…..what was I thinking?
I’ve never seen the folded clover flowers. Do you have a link to it? I’d love to see. π
Love your creativity! Easter Hues and Color Hand are my favorites of this group. Keep up the inspirations!
Thanks, Susan! π I wish I could make quilts as fast as I design them, but I’m enjoying the design process a great deal. π
Wonderful quilts!! I’m going on record with Charlotte (above)–I double dog dare you to sew ‘Color Break’! lol
lol Alright, I’m figuring out how to make it (probably fusible raw-edge appliquΓ© is easiest), but I’ll try to sneak in some time to put together a Color Break mini. π
I love the color break crazy circles one! I’m lookig forward to see your small portion of it for sure!
Thanks Vera. π I need to find my drawing compass and pick up some fusible interfacing and then I should be able to create that one. π Oh, and find some time. No problem. π