Victorian Tiles - Colour Variations

Let's play around with some colour and value using the Victorian Tiles pattern published in Make Modern magazine. In the original blog post I mentioned how this pattern is super versatile. But I figured instead of just talking about it I'd show you.

So here are a few digital mockups of the quilt in different colorways, to show the many secondary patterns you can achieve with strategic placing of colour and value.

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First off, this is the original Victorian Tiles using the Breeze fabrics by Zen Chic.

For a first variation, I've done a sort of reversal of value from the original in that the dark (navy) and light (white) parts have been reversed, and the lighter and medium blues and the pink have switched places. It still uses the same colours as the original, but in a different arrangement that draws more attention to the square-in-a-square blocks than the original did. 

Now let's start paring down the colours. Here I use just four instead of the original five: two blues, a contrasting peach, and white for the background. The peach replaces the darkest blue in the original layout, and because it's more of a pop of colour, it now draws attention to the star shape around the white squares. 

Let's flip those colours around again and now the eye is drawn to the square-in-a-square, and the star shape becomes more of a secondary pattern again and is less in focus.

Losing another couple of colours, I've now pared it down to only one blue and the pink, with white to break it up. In this case, I've also reversed some colours and the white background of the original is now pink, as well as the center square, and only the larger triangles are navy, with white to fill in the rest. This colour layout highlights the diagonal lines being formed by the white patches.

This is one is the same as above, but the colour values have been reversed. The darker fabric is now used for the center and the background squares, and the lighter turquoise for the triangles. We're losing the diagonal lines a bit this way, but instead the many squares show up more prominently.

Instead of contrasting colours we could also choose a monochromatic colour palette. In this case, I've achieved an ombre look by placing the darkest shade in the center of the block and going lighter towards the edges of the blocks. Because of this, the pattern appears rather fuzzy and has lost some of its crispness that is achieved by having greater contrast between the main elements.

This second monochrome version ups the contrast again, but loses the ombre effect in the process. To make the change I've simply switched around the second-darkest colour with the second-lightest one.

And if you really want to change up the look, pare the colours down to a minimum and add lots of white background. We now have blue stars and a diagonal lattice, with a few peach highlights.

Lastly, a change in block setting. This version uses the exact same blocks and colour arrangement as the original, but where it is set on point, with half-blocks around the perimeter, this one uses only full blocks and a straight set.

Which version will you make?

Victorian Tiles is available in Make Modern Issue 35. You can purchase individual issues, or get subscriptions for 6 months, 12 months or their fabulous All Access Subscription, which includes literally everything they've ever published (which means my previously published patterns are all in there, too).