I’m starting on a new quilt called “Coded Paragraph” that I have been designing on the computer for a few months now. It is inspired by SisTeMu poster designs by Laia Clos of Barcelona’s Mot Studio.

Designer Laia Clos, of Barcelona’s Mot Studio, created a visual language called “SisTeMu” that turns every note of music into a system of geometric shapes and bright colours.*

I really liked the design and thought it would be an interesting start off point for a quilt design. I drew an initial plan in November 2011, then it evolved and evolved into something that I am finally happy with.

I gathered various fabrics from my stash, but had to buy some. I wanted bright colors that looked solid for the squares… but I didn’t want to strictly use solid fabrics, so I looked for bright colored fabrics with two to three tones for some variety.

I had a hard time searching for light grey fabrics which will be the background. I wanted a 10% grey with very little contrast, since I don’t want it to compete with the colored squares. I looked around for one particular light grey fabric called “Dapple Dot” from Daisy Janie’s Shades of Grey collection, which I had a fat quarter of… but couldn’t find locally… so I ordered some online. I’m just waiting for that fabric in the mail.

For the quilting, I will do concentric circles, similar to Dan Rouse‘s Ripple Quilt. Most of it will be machine sewn, but I want to try to do a few hand quilted ones with thick thread.

The back will almost be light gray fabric (similar to the front), but I’m thinking of making thin colored triangles that point to the center of the various quilted circles.