Playing with Piecing

Broken Dishes Quilt  (See also: 3 February 2010)

Before I can sew this quilt I need to plan how I am going to piece it.

Experience has taught me that the steps I follow in designing a quilt are often not the best steps to follow when I'm sewing it.

What if I divide this quilt into 5 columns and 3 rows?

I get 3 identical small square pieces, 8 identical medium sized rectangular pieces, and 4 large square pieces.




What if I look at each of these in turn and divide them into smaller pieces?

First, I find that the small squares can be made by sewing together 4 identical Broken Dishes blocks.

When I look at the large squares, I see that they can be made by sewing together 4 identical square blocks.  I need to break these secondary squares down further.

The secondary squares can each be made from 3 Broken Dishes blocks and a plain square.

When I look at the rectangles, I see that they can be made by sewing together 2 Pinwheel blocks with 2 strips of half-square triangles and then capping these with 4 Broken Dishes blocks.

The center of the rectangle can be made using 4 Broken Dishes blocks; so you may be wondering why I used Pinwheels and strips instead. This arrangement guarantees a straight edge along the inside length of the strips; the other way this edge might become disjointed.