Snuggles Quilts

Snuggles Quilts

MENU

One Block Quilts – How to Make Them Pop!

One block quilts are simply a quilt that is made from repeating one block. I like taking these quilts and finding ways to make them more interesting. You can do this through color choice, positioning of the blocks, and adding borders to name a few things. I will also share a bit of history on the evolution of the quilt into a collection of blocks from its earlier incarnations. So, let’s get started for this week.

A Bit of Quilt History

Early quilts were more of the medallion style quilt. What is medallion style? It’s a quilt that has a large central design. Most medallion style quilts in the late 18th and early 19th centuries were referred to as broderie perse, a central appliquéd motif, sometimes framed by a border. The central design for the quilts of that era was often cut out from a large piece of fabric, like an imported chintz, and was then appliquéd to a plain background. My Picket Fence Blooms quilt below gives you the idea of this medallion style although my appliqué design was created from wool and not cut from another piece of fabric:

Another of my patterns, Rail Fence Blooms, can also fall into this category although some of the central motif is pieced.

You have the idea, right? 

In the mid 19th century, the block style quilts that we know today began to emerge. Prior to this time, making quilts was reserved for wealthy women who could afford expensive imported fabric. As fabric began to be produced domestically the prices lowered and more women were able to a buy it to make quilts for fun instead of for necessity only. The earliest block style quilts were friendship or album quilts usually made for someone leaving a community to move west. Friends and family being left behind would sign the blocks as a remembrance for the traveler. These were mostly simple pieced blocks. The more elaborate Baltimore album quilts also emerged at this time. Those quilts were made up of blocks, usually about 25, that were elaborately appliquéd. Often all 25 blocks were unique designs.  

So ends this snippet of quilt history. Now let’s move on to one block quilts.

One Block Quilts

One block quilts are great because once you make one of the blocks and it measures correctly, it’s all smooth sewing from that point on. The cool thing with one block quilts is you can make them pop by playing with the colors used in each block. Here’s my quilt, Star Wheels, that has the same block repeated, but the different color combinations add interest.

The addition of the black fabric element to each block gives a bit of continuity among the blocks and adds a secondary design. Now with this next one block quilt, Scrappy North Stars, I just went a bit wild using 56 assorted fat quarters! 

By alternating light and dark colors in different places on each block, there is the illusion that the blocks are different. You can also see kind of a circle design appear where the blocks meet.

The next examples build on the secondary design I mentioned above. They show how an element in a block can create another design once they are joined, even though all the blocks are the same.

In Star Struck on the left, the stitch and flip corners of the blocks are rotated in opposite directions to create an illusion of geese flying across the quilt. In Mill Country Sky in the center, the blocks have alternating green and tan corners to create the two-tone quarter-square triangle squares when the blocks are joined. Finally, for Open Windows, brown corners on two sides of each block work with the sashing to make an alternating shoo-fly design.

Another way to make one block quilts unique is to play with the background fabric too, like I did with Marbles & Jacks.

For this quilt, I alternated the background of the blocks between a light tan and a black print. I also changed the center star points to the opposite of the background fabric color. Same block… but this adds interest!

A final way I make one block quilts more interesting is to add scrappy borders or even some appliqué. Scrappy North Stars above has a piano key border created from the fabric left over from the blocks. Here are two more examples:

Two completely different one block quilt interpretations, right? On the left, is Paper Chain where I simply made a pieced border from an element of the block itself to give it the illusion that the quilt goes on forever. On the right, Stepping Stones has the blocks turned on point, a border of plain blocks embellished with appliqué and then finished off with plain border strips in alternating colors.

Well, that’s my lesson of the week. I hope you enjoyed our brief journey through quilt history and my one block quilt lesson. Leave a comment or ask a question and I will enter your name into a drawing for my quilt pattern, Marbles & Jacks.

The drawing will be on Monday, March 27th. Good luck! **We have a winner! Congrats, Judith Baker!**

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

2022 Block of the Week – Block 7

Welcome back! We are now on to block 7 in this sew along. You can still join in. All the patterns are free throughout. If you missed any of the weeks, here are the links to each blog post: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5 and Week 6. This week, I will share some interesting thoughts and tips on one block quilts and making them as dazzling as samplers. So lets get started!

2022 BOW Block 7 – Swing in the Center

The instructions to make the block are found here: 2022 BOW Block 7. This block will allow you to practice the stitch and flip technique a lot! I covered this technique earlier in the week 3 post if you need a review.

This block, first appearing in 1897’s LAC,  is also known by the names Mrs. Roosevelt’s Favorite, a name given by Clara Stone in 1906 and Roman Pavement, given by Nancy Cabot in 1938. And those aren’t the only two names! Others are Ladies’ Wreath (1943) and Eight Hands Around (1932). That’s about all I could find in relation to this block. If you have more information, feel free to share!

One Block Quilts

One block quilts are great because once you make one of the blocks and it measures correctly, it’s all smooth sewing from that point on. The cool thing with one block quilts is you can make them pop by playing with the colors used in each block. This week’s block even changes depending on where you place the color prints. Here’s a few examples:

Interesting! You can actually take the same block design, shift around where you have the color prints and tans and it looks completely different! That’s one way to make a one block quilt look like it has a variety of blocks.

Here’s one of my quilts, Marbles & Jacks, where I used the same block in a straight row setting but alternated the background between black and tan and also alternated color prints.

Two other ways to jazz up one block quilts are to add a fun pieced border or add sashing between blocks to create a secondary design. The quilt on the left, Star Wheels, is one where the blocks are all the same, just various color prints and it’s framed by a unique pieced border. The quilt on the right, Open Windows, makes a one block quilt interesting by adding sashing to create a secondary design and also flipping alternating blocks to make another pattern emerge.

An on point setting is another way to add interest to a one block quilt. Below is my quilt pattern, Stepping Stones, that has the blocks set on point and I’ve added appliqué around them to make it more unique.

To sum up, one block quilts can be just as exciting as a quilt with several different types of blocks. Other than making the blocks in an assortment of color combinations, jazz them up with pieced borders, sashing or appliqué!

Well, that’s it for this week. Enjoy creating this fun block and join me again next week. Let me know if you have any unique one block quilt ideas. Comment or ask questions throughout this series. At the end, I will have a grand prize giveaway. This will include my book, two of my newer patterns, some fat quarters and sewing scissors!

Until next week… Happy Quilting!
Deanne

Have Blocks? …. Make a Quilt!

I thought for this week’s post I’d do something fun and creative. I know a lot of you make quilts from patterns like mine, where the setting is already designed by the quilt pattern designer. However, if you are like I am, through out my quilting life I often sit in front of my scrap bins and churn out quilt blocks for fun. When it’s time to use them, there are many ways to set these into a quilt, wall hanging or table runner. In this post, I will share some of my ideas with actual photos of some of my quilts to give you ideas. So, let’s get started!

Settings for Big Quilts

If you have enough blocks for a big quilt… that’s awesome! Here’s some ideas.

Straight Rows: Of course the standard setting would be in rows. My quilt, Marbles & Jacks, is a one block quilt where the blocks are just assembled into rows with no sashing in between.

This classic, traditional setting can be done with all the same blocks or an assortment of blocks for a sampler. I added a little “pizzazz” to this quilt above by alternating background fabric between light and dark.

Straight Row Variation – Two Block Quilt: This type of setting is a really fun way to create a secondary pattern in your quilt top. By using two different blocks with different patterns, you can create movement in different directions. The most common is a traditional block like a star or churn dash black combined with a checkerboard block.

Notice how the crisscross pattern created by the checkerboard blocks gives interesting movement to the quilt. When choosing two blocks to combine in a quilt like this, you can test out if they will work out together by making several paper copies of each of the blocks and laying them out like you would the fabric blocks. 

When I choose to make a 2 block quilt, I usually choose one block with movement in specific directions and one block that either “moves” in another direction or has even movement. Here’s an example where I was trying this out using my computer program:

Maybe this will be a future pattern …. who knows?

Block Rows with Sashing: The fun with this type of setting is you can have plain sashing that just separates the blocks or you can use the sashing to create another secondary pattern. Here’s two examples from my patterns:

The quilt pattern on the left, Twilight Desert, uses a plain sashing to separate the blocks. The quilt pattern on the right, Open Windows, 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.

On Point Settings: A final setting I like to use a lot is the on point setting. If you want to get a different look from your blocks, arrange your blocks this way. You can do this with one block and two block quilts. Both will create some interesting patterns.

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. 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.

Settings for Small Quilts

You can actually use the same concepts for larger quilt projects for your smaller quilts like wall hangings and table runners. For example, here’s my wall hanging, Posey Patch, that uses a sashing that make a star pattern. 

You can see the stars created by a plain connecting square and stitch & flip corners on the ends of the sashing strips. It adds a bit more of fun to the quilt instead of just having a plain brown sashing.

This next example shows how you can do a straight setting of the same blocks in a table runner and create an interesting pattern and also have a two block setting that creates a diagonal secondary pattern. Both these runners are in the same pattern, Scrap Basket Duo.

These ideas are in no way all the ways you can play with blocks, but hopefully it shows a variety to inspire you. Now I bet you want to run to your stash of scraps to start making blocks, right?

Until next week, 
Happy Quilting!
Deanne