Spiromaniacs

SL 7-13-07: Thanks for the pep talk the other night. I did some fiddling with what you gave me and this is what I came up with. Your comments please.

RM: Susan, you’ve made a quantum leap — Good work!

Before I make any comments on the design, I want to point out one very important aspect of how these designs are printed. By default, EQ outlines every patch and block, so it is easy to see the spokes of your spiral and the individual triangles that form them, even though you have colored them all the same color. When you SEW your quilt, those lines won’t be there to define your patches, so unless you graduate colors on the spokes, the spiral effect will be much different than what you see here.

To see what I’m talking about, print out your designs in a different way: when you are in the Print screen, unclick the boxes that say “outline patches” and “outline blocks”. When you print, you’ll see blocks of solid color wherever adjacent triangles have the same fabric or color.

To preserve the spiral effect, you need to use different colors in the triangles that form the spokes. Particularly in flow settings, graduating colors from dark to light is beautiful because the gradations create a sense of depth and dimension. Contrast is what really makes your spirals pop, so be sure to include light, dark and medium colors in your designs (yours tend to bemostly medium or mostly dark).

You can also pick out various triangles to color in contrasting colors — I call these “shards” — to accent the design or to create a secondary pattern. Sheila has done this in some of her designs.

One of the wonderful aspects of EQ is that is so easily lets you experiment with colors so easily, so take full advantage!

Now, some specifics about the designs you sent me:

The layout below is not a great choice, because many of the lines of the patches are not the same length of the adjacent patches, so the spirals do not flow into one another.

In contrast, the next one below IS a good choice, because all the patches have adjacent patches with sides the same length. This allows the spirals to flow into one another, creating a perfect flow setting like I described in yesterday’s post on the blog. You can enhance the flow even more by coloring adjacent sides of the spirals in the same color. This will make the layout look less “blocky”.

You can also create a variety of patterns using just these blocks and this layout by flipping some of the spirals so that they create mirrored pairs. (The flip button is right below the rotate button in EQ.) Right now you have all “trunk” connections, but with mirrored pairs you can create “fans” and “points” as well.

The next setting below is “blocky” because the adjacent spirals change color at the edge of the square. The setting below it “flows” because the adjacent spirals are the same color at the edge of the square.

Again, use EQ’s flip and rotate tools to explore more settings with these layouts as well.

The settings below begin to combine flow and block, but could benefit from more flow. Try flipping some spirals, and try coloring at least some of the squares differently — perhaps symmetrically in two colors instead of four. The setting at the bottom would benefit from rotating the squares around the edge so that the light orange is always along the outside edge of the quilt.

Particularly the the green-blue-purple quilt, you need more medium and light shades to be able to see the beautiful design that is developing.

I hope this is helpful. You’ve made a huge first step. Keep experiementing with flipping and with coloring (you’re going to get completely hooked, like everyone) and you’ll soon arrive at a perfectly spectacular design!

SL 7-16-07: This is my favorite so far.

RM: Susan, you (and Shiela) are making progress, but please go back and read my comments from before. Print out this design without the lines to see what it will really look like if you were to sew it. You won’t see the spiral lines. The only way to really get the full effect of the spirals is to differentiate the color in the triangles.

I had an idea when I looked at your quilts and Sheila’s: Since you and Sheila work so well together, what if you both worked from the same (or very similar) underlying layouts (in this case, half-square triangles)? You would do more evenly-drawn, spoke coloring and she would do her irregular spirals with shard coloring? The results would nicely show how the two different approaches yield completely different results. What do you think?

SL 7-16-07: Hi again. I have been “flipping and rotating” blocks and not noticing any difference between the two.

   
I am previewing the designs without lines etc. but I don’t know how to send them to you this way. [RM: see the post entitled Getting Rid of Lines in EQ posted day before yesterday.]

Anything inspire you from what I sent you? Susan

RM: Susan, if your block arrangements aren’t changing from trunks into points and fans, then somehow you’re not getting your blocks flipped. Look at Julie Willis’ first page — see the fan shapes in her design? That’s what flipping will give you. Also, see how there is no differentiation between the triangles that create her blocks? That’s what will happen unless you color the adjacent triangles differently.

The designs that you sent are very basic. And while they ARE beautiful and might prove useful, I still would like to see you explore a bit more before you settle on this.

Did you give any thought to my suggestion that you and Sheila use the same underlying layout but with the different blocks? Would you please try this just to humor me and see what you come up with? Use the half-square triangle blocks that I sent you. You’ve already used them in some designs. Figure out how to solve the flipping issue and try them in the same layout that Sheila is using.

SL 7-17-07: Before I go any further, is this what you are looking for? What colours do you want same as Sheilas?

RM: NOW you’re on the right track! Play with rotation and placement. (It may end up being another long night!) Go ahead and use your own colors, and your own border too, if you want.

Ultimately you may go back to your previous favorite, but I wanted you to get a little past that to create and see this before you make your final decision. Thanks for continuing to extend yourself out of your comfort zone. I know there have been many challenges for you in this project! You’re really scaling a steep learning curve! Congratulations! (And my apologies for sounding a bit grumpy in my next-to-last email last night. I was SO tired I was hardly coherent.)

SL:  My favourite is sp4. I am very anxious to move forward. Susan

RM: Susan, you have made so much progress in such a short time! Good work! I think #4 is beautiful — go ahead!

SL:  Thanks what about the colour scheme?

RM:  I think it’s lovely.

SL:  Here are some border options:

    
   

RM: My favorites are the ones on the top row, particularly the one on the right, but you go with whatever you like best.

SL 9-24-07:  Finished the quilt this weekend. Sheila will quilt it either Tuesday or Wednesday. Susan

RM:  Susank, do you realize that not only was this your first spiral quilt, it was also your first attempt at designing a quilt (I think that’s what I remember) and first attempt at working in EQ.  Triple good work, Susan! 

I love the openness of the design that results from using only one ring of triangles in the light colored blocks,  while using 5 or 6 rings of triangles in the filled-in spiral blocks.  It’s an effective variation that no one else so far had thought of.  See — even newbies can do something original!  So I guess that’s quadruple good work, Susan.  You really outdid yourself!  You should be really proud!