224 Squares - Notes on Process

I’ve always been the very stupid kind of smart, or the very smart kind of stupid. Maybe you can relate. I started designing quilts while working a job that made me feel simultaneously dead inside and full of demons. I’m not sure whether the creative practices I’ve developed are profound yet eccentric or just fucking weird faffing.

I begin with 224 squares. (That sounds ominous in a fun way.)

I use graph paper, and divide those squares diagonally like half-square triangles.

There’s a lot of fucking about.

Two examples.

When I decide on a design, if there are more than 2 colours, the next step is a bunch of messy, poorly done math. I like to use an 8-at-a-time half-square triangle formula, so all of the math is based on trying to do as little cutting and waste as little fabric as possible.

Two more examples.

Other than having the right numbers, there isn’t much done to form the pattern at the first stage. I just make HSTs, trim them (not as much or as carefully as I should), use the graph as a guide to join the rows in the right configuration and order, and go for it.

Here are two finished quilts using that method:

• Berries and cream
• Carolyne’s quilt