Mosaic Steps Process

jill.... A couple  of weeks ago, Marny posted the above photo as inspirtation for design.  I was anxious to explore some design options as I have a couple of fabrics that I thought would work well.  These fabrics were ones that I really like but have not been able to create a pattern that I was satisfied with.  The idea was to use the high contrast smaller scale print to represent the mosaic on the step and with a neutral background, piece a line the would create a rhythm, like the tread.  AND .... I would document the process.

The funky circles represent the mosaic and the neutrals are the background possibilites.  I used the darker taupe as the background.

The check is the tread line.  I like the organized black and gold graphic with the more curvelinear shapes in the high contrast mosaic.  It gave it some interest since I didn't piece the many treadlines;  I  simplified the design.

Both the patterns were printed linear so I cut the mosaic at a 45 degree angle and the check with enough angle to make it appear more random.  This angle gave it more action but also left me with a streatchy edge - so I handled it carefully.

The background was cut so that there was a slight progression in size. I alternated the print with the background strips, just like the stairs.

After it was pieced, the above photo really didn't speak to me.  It seemed boring. I decided to add in the other complementary fabric in the larger scale.  I had previously used it in small strips and liked the way the color was random and the shapes obscured.  

I substituted this color strip as the tread and arranged the strips similar to the first attempt.

This block is positioning the prints together.  It still wasn't what I was looking for....so I decided to cut another angle.

From each strip set of "stair and tread", I made a 45 degree angle cut to create one large triangle with the end pieces as right sided triangles. I trimmed the sides and formed the various blocks (not sewing, just moving the sections around). 

They could be used in combination with each other and with some alternating blocks of solid color or pattern.

I think this pattern has more of the attributes I envisioned. The lines don't meet, its active and random. What are you thoughts?  I welcome any suggestions, critique.  AND you can try something similar and post it on our Flikr site.  Hope to hear from you!  See you next Tuesday.