Symmetry Saturday - Block Design Using My Initials

Hopefully you all enjoyed my first post last week for SS, and over the course of the week you've been able to see how that block evolved into a quilt that I have on display in a gallery.

This week's feature focuses on my namesake tile.

If you've acquired Raymond Houston's e-book "Beyond Symmetry" (which I believe the first edition is still on sale for $10 - totally worth it!) then you would know that there is not only a method to the madness, but a neat little system for creating new tiles (and they are called "tiles" because you need multiples of them to make a block.) This part is really great for unlocking the power of designing your own tiles.

As an exercise, Raymond suggests using the letters in your name to design a tile. I first designed a tile using my initials, "EDL".

A couple of things that I learned... it's better to design your tile first, lay it out in a pattern to form your blocks, and THEN color it in. You might be surprised what patterns reveal themselves when you only have a plain tile staring at you.

Just for kicks, I decided to lay out the tiles, do some rotating, and come up with a pattern for a block:



It actually turned out really cool looking, and I may need to turn this one into a quilt!

However... the really large sections (I think) make this a little bit limited in its uses, but I can see using it as a neat frame-type design for a medallion quilt.

I then decided to try "LOVE". When I rotated the shapes, it reminded me of black-eyed susans, so that's the block I made:



For some reason, I can't help trying to turn all the blocks into some kind of windmill! Maybe next time, I will try something a little more abstract.

I'm having a lot of fun! I hope you are too. And if you are really curious about what the fuss is about, buy Raymond's book! (Please note - Raymond does not pay me for these shameless plugs; I'm just really "addicted" to his method of block design & I want everybody else to know about it!)

I think I'll go back to the original block next week - there are so many possibilities to explore with that one!

Happy quilting!