Three Very Different

Identical Blocks

It is possible to dramatically change not only the superficial appearance but also the basic design of a quilt block by changing how it is colored.

I'm going to explore some of the possibilities using a simple block.

You Can Use Old Ideas

To Make New Quilts

I was going through some of my old quilt design files when I found this block, High Prairie. It's named after a town in my home province of Alberta.



Back when I designed this I didn't realize that every block has multiple identities. I thought that, what you saw is what you got. So I would stop designing as soon as I found something I liked.

What Can I Do

To A Friendship Star

To Make It My Own?

Traditional blocks do not have to be traditional blocks. You can make new blocks from old ones if you put the pieces together differently.

If the two half-square triangles on either side of a Friendship Star block are rotated, the result is a new block that looks nothing like a Friendship Star block.

What Can I Do

To A Shoo Fly Block ...

...To Make It My Own?

It happens to everyone. You're assembling a block and somehow the pieces don't go together the way they're supposed to. So you say something like, "Oops, I made a mistake."

Think again. You didn't make a mistake. You made a new block.

What The Heck Are

Analagous Colors?

When you are choosing a color scheme for a quilt you will sometimes hear the suggestion that you should use analogous colors. What the heck are analogous colors?

Hand Applique

My wife Linda and I just got back from 5 days in Canmore where we attended a David Taylor (go to his site, you won't be disappointed) workshop.

If you ever get a chance to attend a David Taylor workshop do it! David teaches his method of hand applique.  He appliques with his quilt flat on a table so that the resulting quilt lies perfectly flat.

Hand applique is something I've never done. But now it's something I want to do again.

What If You Use One Block

But In Different Sizes?

What Sort Of Quilts

Can You Design?

The best way to find out is try it.

I'm going to try it with King's Crown in three sizes: full size, 3/4 size and 1/2 size.

Change This

To This

And What Do You Get?

Sometimes You Need

A Small Alphabet

If you've ever sewn a pieced alphabet, you've noticed that a lot of them can be quite large and take a lot of sewing.

Even if you haven't noticed this, I have. I wanted a pieced alphabet that was small, very small. And simple to sew. So I designed Foothills.