One of the fun things about quilting is choosing the type of quilt you want to make. Big or small? All the same blocks or a variety? What setting do I want to use? Some of us may have extra blocks laying around because we make “practice” blocks before making a quilt to test colors and sewing skill. And some of us, like me, like to sit by our bins of scrap fabric and make several of our favorite blocks for fun. So, the theme of this week’s post is how to choose. Let’s get started!

Small Quilts 

If I have an idea for a fun, scrappy block, one of my favorite things to do is make it into a medallion style quilt. This allows me to feature the block itself by framing it with either an interesting pieced border or appliqué.

Here’s a fun one I did. I made one extra large block out of scraps and then accented it with some simple appliqué and a scrappy pieced border.

Rail Fence Blooms, above, is that type of quilt. So if you like a block in a pattern but don’t want to make a large quilt, make one large block and then embellish it with borders or appliqué. 

Here’s another small quilt idea that started as a big quilt idea. The blocks in this pattern were meant to be larger, but I made a smaller version of the block and liked the way it looked smaller. So instead of making a larger quilt with the large blocks, I made nine of the smaller version and made a wall/table topper. Here’s Starfire:

This quilt also has another fun element, a sashing that mimics the star in the center of the piece block.

Finally take several small, easy to piece blocks and piece them into a straight setting surrounded by a scrappy border like in Cabin Stars below.

Bigger Quilts

Now onto bigger quilts. There are a lot of ways to set blocks to make these quilts interesting. The first and easiest setting is in straight rows of just the blocks like in my quilts Town Square and Scrappy Starfield:

The blocks are scrappy so even though they are all the same, the scrappiness creates an interesting quilt. The alternating backgrounds between dark and light prints also adds to the interest. So, consider doing that to jazz up a one block quilt.

The next type of setting is one where you can have fun with secondary design. Still straight row settings, but alternating between two different blocks. In Strips & Stars, there are two different blocks but they are also just set in straight rows.

Two simple blocks. But when joined together, even in a straight row setting, make a very interesting quilt.

Next up, consider a plain sashing between blocks to set them off. The blocks in my quilt, Stars Ablaze, appear to be floating with nothing in the center of the quilt detracting from the blocks. In a quilt like this, your blocks are the star.

Like in my previous example with Starfire above, you can play with the sashing to create another design element where the blocks connect. I did that in my quilt, Open Windows. 

This quilt uses the sashing to make a monkey wrench design by using a dark square connecting the sashing pieces. Combined with the folded corner on the blocks, a monkey wrench design emerges.

Finally, consider setting blocks on point to create a whole new look to a block. This can be done with both small and large quilts. Below is the block from Stars Ablaze. Look what happens to the look of the block when it’s turned on point:

Turning it on point changes the “diamond” look of the center of the block (on the left) to a square design. The same can be said for log cabin blocks like those I used Strips & Stars:

I put on point log cabin blocks together into a quilt top and added appliqué to the centers of the blocks to make Wildflower Lane:

The on point setting turns the log cabin blocks into vases.

I also like to use the on point setting to create interesting secondary design shown here in these two quilts below, Stepping Stones and Country Dance:

The quilt on the left, Stepping Stones, is made up of the same blocks on point and this creates a secondary pattern where those blocks touch. So no sashing is needed to create an interesting look. The quilt on the right, Country Dance, is made up of two blocks, a churn dash and a checkerboard, on point and alternating to create the grid pattern.

So many more ideas out there than use these, but this gets you started brainstorming your next quilt.

That’s it for this week. I hope this inspires you to pull out your fabric and make some blocks to play with. Or if you have already a stack of blocks in your UFO stash, pull those out and start planning a layout.

Leave a comment or ask a question below and I will enter you into a drawing for my newest pattern, Scrappy Starfield.

The drawing will be on Monday, June 22nd. Good Luck! **We have a winner! Congrats, Nancy Schueren!**

Happy Quilting!
Deanne