Secondary Design & How to Create It

One of my favorite things to do when walking around a quilt show is… not to get close to the quilts, but actually stand back and see if another design reveals itself. That design that appears is what we call “secondary design”. This week and next week, I will chat about secondary design and show examples of it with my quilts. Whether you design your own quilts or you are just an admirer of those quilts at shows, hopefully this tutorial will be informative. So let’s get started!

What is Secondary Design?

When you look at a quilt and you not only see the block designs but you see another design emerge as you step back, that’s secondary design. Sometimes it’s intentional… and sometimes the designer just gets lucky and two blocks they decide to place next to each other make another design. For me, I like to try to intentionally create it.

There are several ways to achieve this. It can be done in one block quilts, where the elements of the block create a new design when several of them are joined into a quilt top. In two or more block quilts, joining different blocks into rows can cause a new design to appear where those blocks meet. Then there’s adding a sashing between blocks to create a new design or playing with a scrappy background so the secondary design emerges behind the blocks. This week I will focus on one block quilts and next week I will cover two block quilts and more.

One Block Secondary Design

Option One: The first way to achieve secondary design with one block quilts is to create secondary design within the blocks themselves. Here’s an example of how this works. 

Notice that on the left, the center is a black square and the corner HSTs are multi-colored while the star points are one uniform color. It makes the 8 pointed star more prominent. The block on the right is the same block, but the corner HSTs are just two colors, the center and large star points are blue and the smaller star point is green. This turns the prominent star design into a friendship star. Putting these two blocks together will create an interesting quilt.

Options Two: Choosing a block for your one block quilt with an interesting design element that creates movement across the quilt top. Here’s a block that does that:

It’s a combination of a star with some strips and stitch & flip corners to complete it. Now here is the quilt, Star Struck, that I made with this block:

When I joined the blocks, I turned them so the stitch & flip corners alternated in which direction they pointed in each row. But if you look at the block columns in the quilt, the corners point in the same direction. Those stitch & flip corners create an illusion of flying geese “flying” across the quilt!

Here’s another of my block designs that is simple. A log cabin style block that includes black stitch & flip corners and a black square in the center:

Now here is the quilt, Crisscross Cabin Blooms, that I created with this one block with the directional design alternating in each row to create a crisscross design.

If I turn all the crisscross blocks in the same direction, I would get a design like this:

Interesting, huh?

Option Three: This is a really subtle form of secondary design. All the blocks are the same and so is the movement within the blocks, but if you stand back, you can see a secondary design emerge. I’ll use my quilt, Star Wheels, as an example. Here’s the block:

Now, here is the quilt made from the above block:

The black elements of the blocks create a connecting grid when they are joined. But you have to look really closely to see another interesting design emerge. I’ll help you out with the circled area in the photo below:

Look at the interesting design in that circled area. That something that often emerges when you stand back and look at what you think is a uniform, one block quilt.

Well, that was fun! I hope you enjoyed this little secondary design tutorial and come back next week for part two. Leave a comment or ask a question below and I will enter you into a drawing for the Star Wheels pattern. The drawing will be on Monday, February 3rd, so you have this week’s blog post and next week’s blog post to enter.

Happy Quilting!
Deanne