 Playing
with Blocks
by Christiane Meunier
It's a star. It's a
pinwheel. Wait, it's both and more!
Sharyn Craig had her own fun making "Pinwheel Rhapsody" (39
1/2" square), a tessellating design. Which do you see first, the four bursting stars
or the 20 Pinwheels? Now try focusing on the central star. Do you see the blue circle
behind it? It's all in the fabric placement.
Playing with traditional blocks is a fun challenge. But sometimes I feel exceptionally
adventurous and draft my own designs. Most of the time I come up with a design only to
find someone has already beaten me to the drawing board. But occasionally I create a block
that's truly original. That's exciting!
When playing with these blocks, I decided to start with an empty square and see where
my imagination would lead me.
First I drew an on-point square within the square.
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Then I drew diagonal lines connecting opposite corners of the original
square.
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Finally, I drew two intersecting triangles within the center square.
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My block was complete! But at first, it didn't really seem to have much
design potential. That's when I focused on the tip of one of those intersecting triangles
and followed it down past its base to the corner of the square.
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I could envision it as one intersection of a star. I imagined placing four quilt blocks
together, turning adjacent blocks so that the base of the star sections would meet in the
center to form a completed star, as shown.
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I pictured coloring the entire star section yellow and orange. That's when
I wondered if the two smaller, adjoining triangles pointing at the star ray could be used
to accentuate the star. I did this by making them in bright colors.
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| I love Pinwheels and wanted to create some with
the remaining corner triangles. Concerned that the Pinwheels might overpower the star, I
decided to subdue them by using the shades of only one color, blue. At last I selected
fabrics, cut pieces and started putting it all together on my flannel design wall. The
quilt pictured below is the result. |
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 Look closely and you'll see that the blocks in "Prismatic
Pinwheels" (40" square) are the same as the ones above (Pinwheel
Rhapsody) and below (Transparent Waves). |
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| The Pinwheels were more subdued than I intended.
Can you see them? Can you also see how the flat, bright triangles accentuate the stars? I
was pleasantly surprised to find that they combine to look like a second star radiating
behind the original one. But quilters know that playing with blocks can cause pleasant
surprises! Not wanting the stars to be centered in the quilt, I rearranged them on my
design wall until the balanced, yet asymmetrical look I was after was achieved. |
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Not content to stop with a single design, I returned to the original drawing. I focused
on the center diamond and decided to use a single orange fabric for it.
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| To create transparency, I placed red and yellow
pieces on both sides of the orange diamond. This causes the colors to appear to move
through the orange diamond. I chose dark shades of blue and purple for the remaining two
corners of the block. When I put it all together, this is the design that greeted me. Do
you see the wavy lines moving through it? They were another pleasant surprise! |
A transparent effect appears where red and yellow seem to merge with orange in "Transparent
Waves" (32" x 40"). |
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| After all this play I looked at my block afresh.
It seems to be one of those blocks that doesn't have much potential when it's used alone.
But once you arrange several of them in a variety of ways, the fun really begins. Enjoy
yourself and please share the design surprises you discover. I shared the block design
with my friend Sharyn when she came to visit. That's her quilt you see at the top of the
page. Isn't it great? |
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| Please send your snapshots or slides of your
quilts to Chitra Publications, Playing with Blocks, 2 Public Ave., Montrose, PA 18801. |
Back to Current Quilting "How-To" Class.
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