Tips for Secondary Design in Quilting

The fun of putting one type of block, two different blocks, or interesting sashing into a quilt design is the secondary designs that emerge. Even a two-tone design to background blocks, as I call them, can create it. Have you ever looked at a quilt close up and see one design, then stand way back and see other designs? That’s secondary design. Sometimes it even happens by accident. I call that quilting serendipity! So let’s talk about secondary design and all the ways to accomplish it.

Secondary Design – One Block Quilts

Choosing a block for a quilt that has certain units can lead to secondary design. It can be subtle if the quilt block you have chosen is one that doesn’t have many pieces or much movement to it. Or you can choose a block specifically for the design effect it will have when joined with the other blocks to make the quilt top. This type of secondary design does not include any borders or sashing to create it. Here’s two blocks:

The block on the left in my Paper Chain quilt has some movement, but if you compare it to the block on the right its a bit more subtle. The block on the right from Crisscross Cabin Blooms has obvious, one direction movement. This block gives you some more interesting secondary design.

First with the Paper Chain block, which is built on a simple 9-patch grid, there are two designs you can see emerge when the blocks are joined:

In the left photo you can see where the blocks meet, another design emerges where it looks like a completely different block (circled). In the photo on the right, the circled area shows a more subtle circular design appears as you stand back and view the whole quilt.

With the block from Crisscross Cabin Blooms, it’s a lot easier to pick out the secondary design. First, you can rotate the blocks different ways for a different look:

On the left, you can achieve a “crisscross” design by alternating the direction of every other block in the quilt as you piece it. On the right, you can achieve an over all diagonal design all the way across the quilt top by piecing the blocks in all the same direction. Here’s my quilt on the right, where I used the first option, and a drawing of how the quilt would look like using the second option:

Secondary Design – Two Block Quilts

I find it easier to create secondary design with quilts that have two different quilt block designs. To do this, I generally choose one block that has movement in specific directions and pair it with a block that is a bit more static. The most common is pairing a checkerboard block with another block like a star or churn dash. Here are my two quilts below, Prairie Sky and Country Dance, that illustrate it.

The blocks in Prairie Sky (left) are pieced in straight rows so the checkerboard blocks create a diagonal crisscross design across the quilt. The blocks in Country Dance (right) are pieced in diagonal, on-point rows so the checkerboard blocks create a grid look. If the Country Dance blocks were joined in straight rows like Prairie Sky, the checkerboard blocks would create the diagonal crisscross design as well.

Secondary Design – Created with Sashing

The next way to create a secondary design is with a sashing. In this first example, with my quilt Posey Patch, I used a sashing with cornerstones and also did stitch and flip corners on the sashing strip’s ends. When everything is joined together, stars emerge to frame the blocks.

The second way to create a design is to have the quilt sashing “play” with an element of a block in the quilt. In my quilt, Open Windows, there is a stitch and flip corner on two sides of the blocks, that work to create a monkey wrench design when the blocks and sashing, with cornerstones, are joined.

Secondary Design – Background Blocks

This has similarities to the two block secondary design in a way. You can create a secondary design that is probably the easiest with your quilt’s background blocks. I consider blocks to be background blocks if they are very simple and are used more as a background rather than the focus of the quilt. The most common one I use is the half-square triangle (HST) square/block.

In the three photos below, I have created a diagonal “stripe” by using two different colors in the pieced half-square triangle square blocks that are used for the simple background blocks.

The runner on the end is a bit more subtle than the one in the center because I used two shades of tan. The table topper on the left is more bold since I used a tan print and a blue print to create the background for my blocks.

On these last two quilts, I used the technique from above on larger sized lap quilts. The background stripes are more subtle here because I chose two fabrics very close in shade Like Liberty Star Shine on the left. You can also make the stripe more prominent by using fabrics with shades not as close, like in Butterfly Garden on the right.

That’s it for my tip lesson on creating secondary design… or at least recognizing it where it exists. Next time you go to a quilt show, see how much secondary design you can pick out in the displayed quilts. It’s a lot of fun!

Want to win a pattern for my quilt, Posey Patch? Leave a comment or ask a question below. Drawing will be on Monday, 5/27. Good luck!  **We have a winner! Congrats, Lynn!**

Happy Quilting!
Deanne