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The Building Blocks of A Quilt

fuellingdesigns

Mar 30

2 min read

Colorful quilt pieces with floral patterns are scattered on a gray surface. Pink, blue, yellow, and green fabrics create a vibrant patchwork.

Three of the most fundamental shapes in quilt making are the square, rectangle and 45-degree triangle; also known as a half square triangle (HST). Of course, there are many shapes and angles but these three are the foundation.

I store “units” in a bin. These are pieced items like half square triangles, hourglass, rail strips, flying geese and more. They are building blocks that can be worked into a quilt design.

The other day I pulled out the HST and just played with them. I store units by size making it easy to sort similar colors and prints.

I ended up making friendship stars. Each star needs eight HST and a central square. The background is what drove the unit selection. I needed two of the same background because they touch to form a line.

I love to sort things. I find it therapeutic. The game was on. Could I find four or eight of a kind? Scrap quilts are puzzles. I group like and kind together and the mind will fill in the color and spaces.

Shown are some of the friendship star blocks I sewed up. I have a tray full to piece. Some match beautifully and others push the boundary of similarity. I don’t have a planned project for these blocks, but I know they will show up in a quilt someday.

Also shown are the blocks from the pattern “True Blue” that I am making with scraps. The units are the basic building blocks - squares, rectangles and 45-degree triangles. There are three different blocks that are then framed with strip pieced triangles to form the finished blocks. I have finished piecing the inner blocks and the corner setting triangles are in process.

When you look at quilts, notice how many are made with only these three building blocks. The possibilities of what you can do are amazing. Start adding other shapes and angles and you have an endless creative outlet.