Designing Starlight on Water started with a Design Seeds photo and palette on July 12.

I immediately thought that the white boat was a striking part of the photo, and I knew that it should play a role in the quilt design.  I also thought that the ripples in the water added a subtle texture to the photograph.  My first block was a very simplified EQ7 applique drawing of those inspirations: I couldn’t stop there, because the drawing didn’t express the calm I felt from the photo.  I started playing with the block in EQ7’s Block>Serendipity>Kaleidoscope. The above screenshot shows EQ7’s  ‘Create Kaleidoscope from Block’ dialogue box.  I have 3 different boat blocks on the left, because I tweaked the original block a bit before I was ready to play with Kaleidoscope.  On the right are 4 different triangle subsections of the selected block. The selected subsection, marked by a turquoise box and multiplied by 8, makes up the center block.  By selecting different subsections, I can get 8 different blocks.

When I find a block I like I click the ‘Add to Sketchbook’ button in the dialogue box.  Sometimes the kaleidoscope is really beautiful, sometimes I like the shapes, and sometimes I choose not to add it to my Sketchbook.  Here are the blocks I chose for Starlight on Water:

I further edited the colors in the blocks once I started putting them into the quilt.  Creating the center star used another Serendipity function which I will show you tomorrow.  The blocks will be constructed using fusible raw edge applique. Have a quilty day!