Tag: quilt design

2025 Let's Design a Quit Together Series · Quilt Play · Quilting Partners · Tips and Tricks

Let’s Design a Quilt: The Drunkard’s Path Block

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

What’s shakin’? Me, just sitting here thinking about which quilt block we’re going to feature today to wrap up our Design a Quilt series. I’m kind of bummed that today’s the final post in this series, but it is true that all good things must come to an end. That makes sense, because, if they didn’t then we would never have the opportunity to find new good things.

I’ve also been thinking about how you, dear readers, can utilize what we’ve covered in this series. The biggest thing that occurs to me, of course, is designing your own quilts using common quilt blocks. Common quilt block designs (like Nine Patch, Irish Chain, Four Patch, Sawtooth Star, etc., etc.) would most likely be considered in the public domain.

Want to find public domain quilt block designs? Just Google it! Pretty much all quilt block designs (and everything else in print) from publications before 1923 are considered public domain. Another idea is to look up quilt block history to see if the blocks were used before 1923. You can also invest in a quilt block reference or 2.

My favorite reference is Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.

Cover of the book 'Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns' compiled by Barbara Brackman, featuring various quilt block designs.

For those of you who may not have heard of Barbara Brackman – she is probably the most well-known quilt historian in the USA, if not the world. Her book is meticulously researched and includes a reference section with original publications for the blocks in the book. Believe me, you will never run out of inspiration – there are over 4000 blocks in the book!

Another oldie but goodie block reference is The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America by Carrie A. Hall and Rose G. Kretsinger. This book was published in 1935 and is actually in the public domain itself. It includes A LOT of old pieced and appliqued quilt blocks and quilts along with historical notes. You might be able to find a used copy as its out of print, or I’ve included a link to an e-book version above.

Cover of 'The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America' featuring floral designs and decorative borders.

What does all this mean, really?

If you want to sell quilts, the best way to do that is to design your own instead of using someone’s copyright-protected pattern, which, as we’ve previously explored, has the potential to cause you legal issues down the road.

Want to be a quilt designer?

Create/sell your own patterns?

Design quilts for quilt magazines?

Write a quilt book?

Easy peasy, use public domain/common quilt blocks to create your own designs. Then your designs would be copyright protected, too.

Huh. Kind of mind-blowing, isn’t it? That doing something so simple – and FUN! – can become your own copyright-protected work.

Just something for you to think about….

Let’s move on to today’s block: Drunkard’s Path.

Let’s Design a Quilt: The Drunkard’s Path Block

Here is a basic Drunkard’s Path block unit.

A basic Drunkard's Path quilt block unit featuring a red semicircle on a white background.

The Drunkard’s Path block has a very interesting and rich history with roots in ancient Egypt. The block was popular with the Underground Railroad and the Women’s Temperance movement in the US. For a more and detailed history, please check out this article on the AccuQuilt blog: A History of the Drunkard’s Path Quilt Patterns.

Today, we are going to explore some of the interesting ways you can arrange this humble block unit, add sashing or not, and using color to tweak the design.

Before we can design a Drunkard’s Path quilt, we need to explore some of the many many different Drunkard’s Path variations. Believe me, these ideas are just the tip of the iceberg.

Here are a few books to explore more Drunkard’s Path designs.

Cover of the book '65 Drunkard's Path Quilt Designs' by Pepper Cory, featuring multiple quilt designs in various colors and patterns.
Get the book HERE
Book cover of 'A New Spin on Drunkard's Path' by John Kubiniec, featuring a quilt design in red and white with a pattern of curved shapes and geometric accents.

Get the book HERE

Here are different ways to arrange the units in a 2 x 2 layout. Which one is your favorite?

A Drunkard's Path quilt block unit featuring a grid layout with red semicircles on a white background.
A Drunkard's Path quilt block featuring a layout of red curves on a white background arranged in a 2x2 grid.
A quilt block design featuring a large red circle on a white background, arranged in a four-square layout.

Okay, let’s try a 3 x 3 grid.

A Drunkard's Path quilt block featuring a layout of red and white curved sections arranged in a 3x3 grid.
A Drunkard's Path quilt block design featuring a pattern of red and white curved shapes arranged in a 3x3 grid.
A Drunkard's Path quilt block design featuring a 2x2 grid with alternating red and white curved shapes.

Now let’s see what a 4 x 4 grid looks like.

A quilt block design featuring a 2 x 2 grid of large red circles on a white background.
A quilt block design featuring a repeating Drunkard's Path pattern, consisting of alternating red and white sections arranged in a grid layout.
A quilt block design featuring alternating red and white curved segments arranged in a 2x2 grid pattern, creating a wave-like effect.
A quilt block design featuring a repeating Drunkard's Path pattern with alternating red and white curves.
A quilt block design featuring a grid pattern with large red circles on a white background.

So I think you get the idea about the endless possibilities of the Drunkard’s Path block unit. Why don’t you try a 5 x 5 grid or a 6 by 6 grid to see what you can create?

Now let’s play with the color arrangement by swapping reds and whites in order to create new and different designs from the ones above.

A Drunkard's Path quilt block design featuring red and white curved shapes arranged in a grid pattern.
A quilt block design featuring a Drunkard's Path layout with alternating red and white sections, showcasing four circular shapes in each quadrant.
A Drunkard's Path quilt block featuring red and white fabrics in a four-square layout with curved designs.
Drunkard's Path quilt block design featuring alternating red and white sections arranged in a circular pattern.
A Drunkard's Path quilt block design featuring alternating red and white curved shapes arranged in a 3x3 grid.
Quadrant quilt block featuring a Drunkard's Path design with alternating red and white sections.

Let’s add more colors to our blocks, shall we? That way we can get even more interesting variations. You can see how adding more color can change a block design or even add a secondary design. Never underestimate the power of adding more color.

A geometric quilt block design featuring a mix of red circles, black shapes, and white backgrounds with a central gray square.
A Drunkard's Path quilt block design featuring a bold black and white layout with a prominent red circle at the center.
A colorful Drunkard's Path quilt block featuring a blue center surrounded by red circles, with alternating white and blue shapes creating a dynamic pattern.
Abstract quilt block design featuring red and black shapes arranged in a circular and square pattern.
A Drunkard's Path quilt block design featuring a blue semicircle on a red and white background, arranged in a 2x2 grid.
A quilt block design featuring a pattern of red circles on a black and white grid.

Okay, now it’s time to create quilt designs using some of the variations above! Let’s start with this bird variation.

A quilt block design featuring a Drunkard's Path pattern with red and white curved sections arranged in a 2x2 layout.

I like this bird quilt arrangement very much, but I don’t love how all the birds are facing the same way.

A quilt design featuring a repeating Drunkard's Path block pattern, alternating between red and white colors.

Let’s turn the birds in different directions. Hmmm. I only see a small difference here. Let’s keep going.

A digital quilt design featuring the Drunkard's Path block in a repeating pattern of red and white colors.

Better with sashing and sashing squares, but I’m still not too excited by it.

A quilt design featuring a repeated Drunkard's Path block pattern in red and white colors arranged in a grid layout.

Okay, let’s remove the sashing and turn the birds some more to see what happens. AHA! Yes, this is more like it.

A quilt design featuring a Drunkard's Path block arrangement with alternating red and white shapes, creating a dynamic pattern.

I think we can call this a finished design. Let’s add some fabric. It would definitely make a bold 2 color quilt as long as you have strong contrast between the colors like the red and white example above. But let’s add more than 2 colors.

Yup, this one rocks. I’m using fabrics from QT’s American Spirit collection. I took a chance and flip flopped the fabrics in the centers and it really sets this design off.

A quilt design featuring the Drunkard's Path block, arranged in a repeating pattern with red, blue, and cream fabrics, creating a visually appealing layout.

Now let’s try a different Drunkard’s Path block variation from above.

A quilt block design featuring a circular blue shape in the top left and bottom right sections, against a backdrop of alternating red and white squares.

I like this interesting block arrangement, especially with the checkerboard behind the blue circles. Very 3-D. But I bet we can tweak it to change it from an okay quilt to a WOW quilt.

A quilt design featuring a checkered pattern with red and white squares and blue circles in the center.

Just a quick turn of some blocks and we get this design with lots of movement. Kind of fun, huh?

A quilt design featuring a repeating pattern of red, white, and blue blocks with circular shapes in blue and white against a red background.

Let’s add some fabric to this one. Can’t wait to see it! Here’s a selection of yummy Hoffman batiks. This super mod design has a lot going for it!

A quilt design featuring a repeating pattern of pink circles on a black and white grid background, with a copyright notice for Tricia Lynn Maloney, Orphan Quilt Designs.

Let’s play with another block.

A quilt block design featuring a central gray square surrounded by red circles and black curved shapes on a white background.

All right, let’s see what this block looks like in a quilt. Gosh, I’m really liking this one. It reminds of a tile floor. But I think we can tweak it a bit to make it outstanding.

A colorful quilt pattern featuring alternating blocks with red circles and black shapes on a white background, arranged in a grid format.

YES! This is the finished design. Adding sashing and sashing squares was just the tweak I needed, which added a wonderful secondary design.

A colorful quilt design featuring a repeated Drunkard's Path block layout with black, red, gray, and white colors.

Yippee! Time to add fabric! I think this design is spectacular!

A quilt design featuring pink floral blocks and circular motifs on a dark background.

Let’s do one more!

A graphic illustration of a Drunkard's Path quilt block design featuring a red circle, black and white geometric shapes.

Let’s see how this variation plays in a quilt. I really like this design – it makes me think of Halloween bats flying in front of a full moon. But I think we can tweak it a bit more.

A quilt design featuring a repeating pattern of the Drunkard's Path block, showcasing red, black, white, and gray colors arranged in a grid layout.

Let’s try sashing again. Sometimes this is the way to go and sometimes it isn’t. This one improves with sashing, definitely! I love the diagonal movement the design has now. What do you think?

A geometric quilt design featuring alternating black, white, and red blocks with curved patterns, arranged in a checkerboard layout.

Only thing left to do is to add FABRIC! I’m using assorted Hoffman batiks again and I played up the Halloween moon idea by making the background grey like twilight. Totally loving this!

A quilt design featuring a repeating pattern of Drunkard's Path blocks in gray and dark blue with orange accents, arranged in a grid layout.

Sadly, that wraps up our 5 part Let’s Design a Quilt series. I have had SEW much fun with this series. I hope you did too. I can envision adding more to this series down the road. Maybe I will focus on on-point quilt designs….

If you missed any posts in the series, you can find them all right here:

Playing with Nine Patch Blocks

Playing with the Spool Block

Playing with the Courthouse Steps Block

Playing with the Sawtooth Star Block

Playing with the Farmer’s Daughter Block

See you next week – time for some new VRD tutorials to jumpstart your Autumn quilting when the kiddos go back to school.

Until then –

Sew. Laugh. Design. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

2025 Let's Design a Quit Together Series · Quilt Play · Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · Tips and Tricks · villa rosa designs

NEW VRD Patterns for August and Let’s Design a Quilt: The Farmer’s Daughter Block

rosecards2 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Welcome! We have lots of fun stuff to do this week, so we’re just going to dive right in.

First up, today is the Thursday after the first Friday, which means – NEW PATTERNS! Yay!

Collage of five quilt pattern covers titled 'August 2025 Patterns in a Set!' featuring designs named Grated, Lady Banks, Jolene, Jasper, and Snap Shot. Each cover showcases different quilt designs and colors.

Get your print pattern set HERE.

I know I say it every month, but our VRD designers are totally outstanding! Every month, they exceed the previous month’s designs. Let’s take a look at each pattern this month.

Grated by Heidi

Colorful quilt design titled 'Grated' by Heidi Cook for Villa Rosa Designs, featuring a variety of fabric patterns arranged in a grid layout.

Grated uses a stack of fat sixths (which are between a fat eighth and a fat quarter, measuring 12″ x 21″) or 10″ squares. This is a big quilt measuring 65″ x 75.” There are still kits available, which feature Klimt fabrics like the pattern cover. You can get your Grated kit, which includes the pattern, HERE.

Lady Banks by VRD (Pat)

A quilt design titled 'Lady Banks' featuring a patchwork of various blue and grey fabrics, set against a light blue background. The quilt consists of squares and rectangles with floral and textured patterns. The design is framed by a dark border with the names 'Lady Banks' and 'Villa Rosa Designs' displayed prominently.

If you are following along with the Tim Holtz Palette collections then Lady Banks is for you. It features the blue palette and finishes at 45″ x 60″. You can find the kit (including the pattern) HERE.

Jasper by Running Doe Quilts (Catherine)

A colorful quilt named 'Jasper' featuring a variety of patterns in blue, green, yellow, and red fabric blocks, displayed against a brick wall background.

Catherine is back with 2 new mod patterns this month! Jasper is FQ friendly and finishes at 36×48, which makes a nice baby quilt or lap quilt. You can find the kit HERE featuring the Camp Canine collection at Running Doe Quilts.

Jolene by Running Doe Quilts (Catherine)

A colorful quilt named 'Jolene' featuring a pattern of alternating squares and checkered designs in shades of pink, green, and yellow, displayed against a textured white wall.

Jolene is Catherine’s second quilt this month. It uses FQs and finishes at a generous 63″ x 84″. You can find the kit HERE at VRD featuring the Thirty-One collection or HERE at Running Doe Quilts featuring the Camp Canine collection.

Snap Shot by Molly

Quilt design titled 'Snap Shot' featuring images of wildlife, including deer and a bear, with a mix of earthy colors and fabric patterns.

Snap Shot is another one of Molly’s creative panel quilts. It is FQ friendly and finishes at a nice 45″ x 54″, which could be a wall quilt or a throw. Sorry, but VRD is out of Snap Shot kits already.

Apologies, but there is no table runner this month. Stay tuned for next month’s runner!

SEW, which NEW pattern are you going to make first?????

Now let’s turn our thoughts to our ongoing Quilt Design series.

Let’s Design a Quilt: The Farmer’s Daughter Block

Colorful quilt block design featuring a central orange square surrounded by red, blue, yellow, and green pieces in a symmetrical pattern.

Here is the traditional Farmer’s Daughter block. According to Barbara Brackman, this block was first published in Clara Stone’s 1906 booklet, Practical Needlework: Quilt Patterns, which was part of a needlework booklet series by C. W. Calkins & Co. in Boston. Of course, like most quilt patterns, it was probably being made long before it was published. One of our readers suggested this block last week and I just couldn’t resist it. Thank you, dear reader! I hope I do the block justice for you!

Yikes! See how the four corners of the block feature set-in seams? Well, the first change to this block we are going to make is to change the four corners to be much friendlier by using Half Square Triangles (HSTs) instead of set-in pieces. Ahhhh! That’s more like it!

A colorful quilt block design featuring a central red square surrounded by blue triangles and yellow squares, with green squares at the corners.

Now we’re ready to play — er, design! Let’s put Farmer’s Daughter blocks in a quilt. Huh! When you set the blocks side to side, you lose the block and a whole new design emerges. Pretty cool!

Colorful quilt design featuring a geometric pattern with star and diamond shapes in red, blue, green, yellow, and orange.

Now let’s add some sashing to see what that looks like. Neat-o! Sashing shows off the block. I just love the secondary design where the block corners (with the green squares) meet the sashing squares. Both designs have a lot of movement already and I haven’t done anything except the HSTs.

A colorful quilt design featuring a repeating star pattern with red, blue, orange, and green shades set against a yellow background.

Wowzer! Look what happens when I change the colors to black, grey, white, and red. I’d call this a finished design right now, wouldn’t you???? It almost has a 3D effect. Cool beans!

A quilt design featuring blocks with star-like shapes in red, gray, and white against a black background, creating a geometric pattern.

Here’s the same design, but I changed the red to white. Holy cow, Batman! It’s really eye-catching and the black negative space is just itching for some really cool machine quilting.

A quilt design featuring alternating blocks composed of black, white, and gray geometric patterns, arranged in a grid layout.

Here’s the same design again, but I changed the grey to red. Oh my! It just about leaps off the screen. Just by playing around with the colors.

This is only ONE of sew many reasons why I love my Electric Quilt 8 software. I can tweak some tiny little thing and if I don’t like it, I can go back or keep tweaking. If you haven’t ever tried EQ8, you really should. It is a total game changer for quilters everywhere!

A quilt design featuring a bold pattern of alternating red and black shapes arranged on a black background, with white squares creating a checkered effect. The design includes intricate geometric shapes that resemble a stylized star or flower.

Now let’s add some fabric. I’m using lovely blue batiks from Hoffman’s 1895 Watercolors collection. That’s the one! LOVE IT!

That’s a wrap for this design!

A quilt pattern featuring interconnected blue and white blocks set against a dark background, creating a geometric design.

But wait! We’re not done yet. Let’s go back to the block and split the corner sections into 2 colors, instead of just 1 color. I also changed the center square to blue, which gives it an interesting pinwheel design in the center.

A colorful quilt block design featuring a star shape with blue, red, and yellow triangles, set on a white grid background.

Let’s see what it looks like in a quilt. Hmmm. Not very interesting. At least not yet.

A quilt design featuring a repeating star pattern with red, blue, and yellow colors on a white background.

Let’s add some sashing. I’m gong to introduce black for the sashing squares. Better, but no way near finished. Let’s keep going.

Quilt design featuring a repeating star pattern with red, blue, yellow, and white colors, arranged in a grid with black sashing.

Let’s flip the black and white for the sashing and sashing squares. WHOAH! I am loving this sashing idea – it is incredibly graphic! But now we need to tweak the blocks some more.

A colorful quilt design featuring a repeating pattern of star blocks in red, blue, yellow, and white, set against a black background. The blocks are arranged in a grid with alternating black and white sashing.

Before we work on the blocks some more, it needs a border to frame it. It just looked a bit unfinished without it, don’t you think?

A quilt design featuring a grid of colorful star blocks on a black background, incorporating blue, red, yellow, and white fabrics.

That’s it! Okay, on to the blocks. Let’s swap the blue and yellow in the 4 corners back to 1 color, red. And change the blue center to white so it repeats the white sashing square. I love how graphic it is. Your thoughts?

Quilt design featuring a repeating pattern of star blocks in red and white against a black background, with a modern geometric layout.

One more tweak. Let’s change the center square in the blocks to black. Yup! That’s it! Love the plus sign in the center of the blocks! This design has a clean modern look yet it feels traditional, too. It is totally the best of both worlds.

A patterned quilt design featuring alternating red and white blocks on a black background, showcasing a geometric star motif.

All right! Let’s add some fabric. Again, I’m using batiks from Hoffman’s 1895 Watercolors collection. I did make one more tweak by changing the sashing squares to match the plus signs. Don’t you just love it in pinks? The black has a slight bluish tinge for added interest. Again, it has a bit of a 3D effect. Done and done!

A vibrant quilt design featuring a repeating star pattern in pink and purple hues, set against a dark blue quilt background with white borders separating each star.

Do you remember where we started? A Classic Farmer’s Daughter block.

How far we came just by changing the colors, playing with the fabric placement, and adding sashing/border.

How are you going to explore these ideas with your quilts???

A colorful quilt block design featuring a central orange square surrounded by red squares and blue triangle sections, with green and yellow corner pieces.

Well, that’s it for me for our 4th week in our Let’s Design a Quilt Series. If you missed any posts, you can catch up here:

Playing with Nine Patch Blocks

Playing with the Spool Block

Playing with the Courthouse Steps Block

Playing with the Sawtooth Star block

Sadly, next week we are going to wrap up our Quilt Design series. Next we’re going to do some new tutorials, just for you. Sew stay tuned!

See you on the flip side!

Until then –

Sew. Laugh. Design. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

2025 Let's Design a Quit Together Series · Just Quilty Stuff · Quilt Play · Quilting Partners · Tutorials · villa rosa designs

A Sneak Peek, Our Shoofly Challenge, and Let’s Design a Quilt: Playing with the Sawtooth Star Block

rosecards2 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

The forecast for today is sum-sum-summertime with a strong chance of quilting! SEW much to do today, so let’s get started.

Before we jump into this week’s Quilt Design adventure, though, I want to share a fun SNEAK PEEK with you from our friends over at QT Fabrics. You might recall that VRD has been working closely with QT to pair their new fabric collections with our patterns. Here is our latest collaboration:

Image featuring the logos of QT Fabrics and Villa Rosa Designs, highlighting their collaboration for Fall 2025 collections.

You can check out the catalog HERE.

These upcoming fabric collections are being shown to quilt shops right now and will ship in late 2025/early 2026. If you see something you like — ask for the collection (and VRD patterns, of course) at you local quilt shop.

Churn Dash Challenge Winner

As part of my Quilt Design series last week, I offered up a challenge to you – see what you could do with the Churn Dash block.

First, I want to thank those of you who shared your ideas, creations, blocks, and quilts.

And the winner is………………………..

Lisa from KY

Lisa won with her charming Churn Dash quilt, below, featuring multiple sizes of her Churn Dash blocks with the added fun of novelty farm panels and prints inside each block. Way to go, Lisa!

A colorful quilt featuring various farm animal-themed blocks framed with bold borders in different colors, displayed against a brick wall.

Log Cabin Inspiration

Folks were really inspired by last week’s Courthouse Steps block quilt design party and suggested we stay in the Log Cabin zone. Thank you for those suggestions, but I want to keep addressing different kinds of blocks to maximize your inspiration when it comes to designing quilts. There are entire books written about Log Cabin blocks and quilts and a few blog posts just can’t do the topic justice, I am afraid.

In lieu of more Log Cabin blocks, here is a short list of Log Cabin books for you to explore. I tried to choose a variety to show you here on the blog, but believe me – there are tons more out there just waiting to inspire your next Log Cabin quilt.

A colorful quilt featuring curvy log cabin blocks and a floral border, showcased outdoors in a natural setting.
Find it HERE
Book cover titled 'Log Cabin Improv: Quilts with a Twist on Tradition' by Mary M. Hogan, featuring a colorful patchwork quilt design made of various Log Cabin blocks.
Find it HERE
Cover of the book 'Extraordinary Log Cabin Quilts' by Judy Martin, featuring colorful quilt designs including traditional log cabin patterns.
Find it HERE
Cover of the book '101 Log Cabin Blocks' featuring various log cabin quilt block designs and patterns.
Get it HERE
Cover of the book 'Creative Log Cabin Quilts' displaying a quilt with various Log Cabin block designs in a garden setting with flowers and a wooden fence.
Find it HERE

After enjoying your Log Cabin comments and quilt photos, it occurred to me that I have not done a Star block yet……..so today’s the day!

The Sawtooth Star Block

I chose an oldie, but a goodie for today – the Sawtooth Star.

Sawtooth Star is known by many names and has a lot of different variations. Apparently, it first appeared in print in the 1880’s or 1890’s in popular publications such as Farm and Fireside Magazine as well as in the Ladies Art Company catalog in 1895. The Sawtooth Star block was block # 5. Like most quilt blocks, however; Sawtooth Star blocks were probably being made long before they ever appeared in print.

Here is our classic 2 color Sawtooth Star block.

A simple quilt block design featuring a red Sawtooth Star pattern with a solid center and white background.

So, let’s make a quilt. Here are 20 blocks set side by side. This makes a lovely classic 2 color quilt, but of course we’re not going to stop there.

A quilt layout featuring a repeating pattern of red Sawtooth Star blocks interspersed with white squares.

Here it is with sashing in between the blocks. Again, super classic. I do like how the sashing gives the stars room to breathe, plus this layout would be a lot easier due to not having to match up all those points. Win, win….

A quilt design featuring multiple Sawtooth Star blocks in red and white, arranged in a grid pattern.

Let’s go back to our block and tweak it a little bit, shall we? Let’s change the solid center block into an Hourglass.

A quilt block design featuring a Sawtooth Star pattern in vibrant red and white colors, arranged in a grid layout.

Here are the blocks set side to side. I find it interesting that I’m not seeing the stars so much now, but rather, all the triangles seem to jump out at me now. And I see “V” shapes, too. Huh.

A quilt layout featuring red Sawtooth Star blocks arranged in a grid, alternating with white squares.

Let’s tweak the block again by adding Half Square Triangles (HSTs) in the 4 corners.

Quilt block pattern featuring a red and white Sawtooth Star design.

Okay, now let’s set the blocks side by side in a quilt. Wow! There is so much more movement – almost to the point of being distracting. Really cool, though.

Quilt pattern featuring a repeating design of red and white Sawtooth Star blocks arranged in a grid layout.

Let’s add a 3rd color to the blocks now.

Classic Sawtooth Star quilt block design featuring red, blue, and white fabric triangles arranged in a star pattern.

Here is the same layout as above, but with the added 3rd color. It looks totally different and not as dizzying.

Quilt design featuring a pattern of Sawtooth Star blocks in red, white, and blue colors arranged in a grid layout.

What if we add sashing again? Cool – we now have a Shoofly block where the sashing square meets the blue HSTs – this adds a lot of interest to the design. Liking this, but not quite there yet. Let’s keep tweaking.

A quilt design featuring a classic Sawtooth Star block layout in red and blue, arranged in a grid with white spaces between the blocks.

I think the blocks look a bit heavy, so I’m going to lighten them up a bit by changing the inner blue triangles back to white. Yep, liking this one more.

A quilt design featuring multiple Sawtooth Star blocks arranged in a grid pattern. The stars are colored in red and white with blue squares in between, creating a striking contrast against the white background.

I’d call this a finished design, so let’s add some fabric. Here it is featuring fabrics from QT Fabrics’ American Tapestry collection.

A quilt design featuring a repetitive pattern of Sawtooth Star blocks in red and navy, with a neutral background and small star accents.

It’s a bit too vertical for me, though, so let me make one more tweak by alternating the direction of the blocks. Yes, I think that does it. This one’s a wrap!

A quilt featuring a repeating Sawtooth Star block design in red and white, with dark blue star-patterned corner pieces and a light beige background.

But wait – I’m not done yet. I’m having way too much fun to stop now. Let’s go back to our block and tweak it a bit more by adding blue triangles on the sides only.

Illustration of a Sawtooth Star quilt block featuring red and blue triangular segments arranged around a central white square.

Here’s our updated block set side to side in a quilt. You totally lose the star block, don’t you? I like the horizontal repetition of the triangles, too.

A quilt design featuring a pattern of interlocking red, blue, and white triangles arranged in a grid layout, with a central diamond shape in white.

Let’s add fabric! Here it is using the QT fabrics from American Tapestry again. Love it, yet……

Quilt featuring a repeated pattern of red, white, and blue fabrics arranged in a geometric design with star motifs.

One more tweak……let’s rotate every other block. Yup, that’s the one. Finished. Great movement – I can’t even see the stars now, can you?

A colorful quilt featuring a Sawtooth Star design with red, white, and blue fabrics embellished with stars, arranged in a grid pattern.

Do you remember where we started? A classic 2 color Sawtooth Star.

A graphic illustration of a classic Sawtooth Star quilt block, featuring a central square in red surrounded by triangular points in red against a white background.

YAY! This has been another fun quilt design adventure! Sew glad you came along.

If you’ve missed any posts in our Quilt Design Series so far, you can catch up below:

Playing with Nine Patch Blocks

Playing with the Spool Block

Playing with the Courthouse Steps Block

Stay tuned for next week when we explore another block in our Let’s Design a Quilt series. Any thoughts on another great block to explore?

See you next time!

Until then –

Sew. Laugh. Design. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

2025 Let's Design a Quit Together Series · Just Quilty Stuff · Quilt Play · Tips and Tricks

Let’s Design a Quilt: Playing with the Courthouse Steps Block

rosecards4 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Are you ready to play with another quilt block? Yippee! Me too. This really is SEW much fun for me to do and I think it’s also helping me to think more “outside the box.” I’ve definitely noticed more designs popping into my head lately. 🙂

If you’ve missed our Quilt Design Series so far, you can catch up:

Playing with Nine Patch Blocks

Playing with the Spool Block

I was a little disappointed that no one was brave enough to suggest a quilt block in the comments on last week’s blog post. Please consider letting me know what your favorite block is or another block suggestion to design with as I’m planning to do this mini series on designing for a few more weeks. Do you really want me to have all the fun of picking out all the blocks?

So I asked my quilty pal, Mary Lee (Hey Mary Lee!) for a block suggestion. She thought for a few seconds and then suggested either Churn Dash or Courthouse Steps. I thought both were good options. Churn Dash (image 1, below) is another Nine Patch variation while Courthouse Steps (image 2, below) is a variation of a traditional Log Cabin block. Because we’ve already done 2 Nine Patch blocks, I zoomed in on her Courthouse Steps suggestion and immediately began to wonder what we could do with it.

A digital illustration of a Courthouse Steps quilt block design featuring a central square surrounded by rectangles and triangles in a light teal color.
Image 1 – Churn Dash block, also known as Hole in the Barn Door and Monkey Wrench
A quilt block design featuring a central pink square with gray and white rectangles surrounding it, arranged to create a geometric pattern.
Image 2 – Courthouse Steps block

Homework!

Since I’m going to focus on the Courthouse Steps block today, I’m assigning all of you readers “homework” — see what you can do with the Churn Dash block (image 1, above).

You can share your “homework” on our Facebook Page, in the comments (although I’m not sure if you can upload images), or you can email them to me at tricia@villarosadesigns.com.

I’d love to share your ideas on next week’s blog or upcoming posts if we have a big response. I hope you will take a little time and play – er, I mean design a quilt – along with me. Hand drawn, EQ, or Adobe images are great, please use a .jpg or .pdf format atat no more than 300 dpi.

Who knows????? There might even be a prize or 2…. US and International friends can play along, so go get started – right after you finish reading this post, that is.

The Courthouse Steps Block

Let’s learn a bit about the Courthouse Steps block. As I mentioned earlier, it’s a variation of a Log Cabin block. According to Barbara Brackman in the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, it was originally called White House Steps and appeared in print circa 1890 in the first Ladies’ Art Company catalog, which included 272 patterns. White House Steps was block #221. Of course, that doesn’t mean the block just suddenly appeared in the 1890’s. rather, that was the first known version in print. Quilters may have been making the block much sooner than the 1890’s.

A Courthouse Steps quilt block design featuring a central pink square surrounded by alternating gray rectangles.
White House Steps block
A graphic representation of the Courthouse Steps quilt block, featuring a central pink square surrounded by alternating gray and white rectangles.
Courthouse Steps block

The Courthouse Steps block we are familiar with today uses color a bit differently than the White House Steps version, above. Interestingly enough, “Courthouse Steps” isn’t even mentioned in Barbara Brackman’s book. I wonder if it’s a regional term used for the block? Does anyone know this block by another name? Just curious. I did find the block in Electric Quilt 8 software (which is based on Barbara Brackman’s book), but it is considered a foundation pieced block and does not include any historical information.

Doing a quick Internet search, I discovered a post on Suzy Quilts about Courthouse Steps blocks with a touch of history and wonderful examples of Gee’s Bend quilts. Check it out HERE.

Alright! Ready to get designing???

The Courthouse Steps Block

So, here’s our block again. Take a good look at it – what do you see? A central square with rectangles radiating from the center square both horizontally and vertically. That’s it! Simple, but very effective, very geometric, and very graphic.

Illustration of a Courthouse Steps quilt block design featuring a central pink square surrounded by gray and white rectangles.
Courthouse Steps block

Let’s put the blocks side by side with all of the blocks going the same direction. Okay, this is fun. And it would make an awesome scrappy quilt, wouldn’t it?

A digital mockup of a Courthouse Steps quilt block design featuring pink squares, grey and white rectangles arranged in a geometric pattern.

Let’s turn the blocks sideways and see if we get something different. Pretty much the same thing, just different direction.

Pattern design of the Courthouse Steps quilt block featuring alternating shades of gray, pink centers, and white accents in a geometric layout.

Let’s alternate every other block next. Huh. Better. Definitely more movement in this one, wouldn’t you agree? I almost detect a bit of a curvy look happening, which is interesting with a square block.

A quilt design featuring alternating Courthouse Steps blocks in shades of gray, pink, and white arranged in a grid pattern.

Now I think I’d like to see what happens when I group the blocks in 4’s. That’s interesting.

A digital quilt design featuring multiple Courthouse Steps blocks arranged in a grid pattern with a mix of gray, white, and pink colors.

Let’s add fabric to see what happens, shall we? I’m using Lori Holt’s warm and homey Riley Blake collection, Autumn. I can almost smell the apple pie…..

A patchwork quilt featuring a Courthouse Steps block design with a variety of colorful fabrics arranged in a grid layout.

I want to tweak the blocks one more time. In this example, I turned alternating rows which then gave me an interesting boxed effect in rows 2 and 4.

A colorful quilt design featuring the Courthouse Steps block, showcasing a mix of fabrics in varying patterns and colors arranged in a geometric layout.

Whoah! Stop the bus! Here was the basic idea behind my VRD Rose Card pattern, Boxed In (hence the name), although it’s not totally the same. I wasn’t even thinking about any of our VRD patterns when playing with Courthouse Steps, but – there it is. LOL!

A quilt design titled 'Boxed In' by Tricia Lynn Maloney, showcasing a colorful patchwork pattern with various fabrics arranged in geometric blocks on a table.

Get your digital pattern HERE or your print pattern HERE

Okay, let’s go back to our Courthouse Steps block and tweak it a little bit by changing the width of some of the rectangles. I left the side rectangles the same, but I made the top and bottom rectangles narrower.

Diagram of the Courthouse Steps quilt block design featuring a central pink square surrounded by gray rectangles.

Let’s use the first setting from above to see how the blocks plays in a design. I really think this looks pretty cool and it reminds me of paper lanterns.

A digital representation of a Courthouse Steps quilt block design featuring a central pink square surrounded by white and gray rectangles, arranged in a grid layout.

Let’s tweak the color a little bit. Again, I’m using a couple prints from Lori Holt’s Autumn collection. WOW! What a mod yet classic 2 color quilt! Love it!

A digital quilt design featuring a Courthouse Steps block layout in brown and turquoise colors, arranged in a grid pattern, with a light grid background.

Cool! Check out this block arrangement! It’s the same layout as our previous 2nd design, above.

A quilt design featuring a Courthouse Steps block pattern in brown and light blue color scheme.

Hmmm. I just don’t feel that’s it totally complete yet, so let’s add another fabric to see what happens. In this example, I’m using some lovely Hoffman 1895 Watercolors batiks. Love it!

A quilt design featuring a central pink pattern framed by dark and light gray rectangles, creating a geometric composition.

Just….one….more….tweak. As you can see, designing a quilt can get kind of addicting. Yup. But, I think you’ll agree with me that this is the final design. I changed the block directions a bit, changed the black centers to grey, changed the black background to a light grey and added more fabrics from Hoffman.

I think it’s perfect now.

A digital quilt design showcasing alternating blocks of the Courthouse Steps pattern in shades of pink and gray, framed by light blue fabric strips.

There’s not much else I can say………except I’m very satisfied with this final design. Seriously. Sometimes it takes just one more try to get where you want to. And I’m not just talking about quilt design, you know.

What would you do to tweak the Courthouse Steps block to create your own design?

Don’t forget to do your homework for next Thursday! I’ll see what I can find in the prize department while you play with the Churn Dash quilt block to see what you can come up with.

Ta! Ta!

Until next time –

Sew. Laugh. Design. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

2025 Let's Design a Quit Together Series · Quilt Play · Tips and Tricks · villa rosa designs

Let’s Design a Quilt: Playing with the Spool Block

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

What a fun blog post last week! It was great to share a little bit about my quilt design process with you. It was such fun, we’re doing it again this week, but with a different quilt block.

Before even starting this post, though, I must admit I cheated a bit and began playing with this week’s quilt block. Let me tell you – it never fails to amaze me how a simple block can create such amazing designs.

Here’s last week’s post if you missed it:

Playing with Nine Patch Blocks

Are you ready? Let’s design a quilt together!

The Spool Block

According to Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, this specific Spool block appeared in the book, Polly Prindle’s Book of American Patchwork Quilts by Alice Gammell in 1973. Of course, it wasn’t really a new block in 1973, but this simplified Nine Patch version appeared in Polly Prindle’s. Previous versions included set-in seams as well as 4 small Spools in a single quilt block. Today, though, we’re going to start with Polly Prindle’s version.

Cover of 'Polly Prindle's Book of American Patchwork Quilts' by Alice Gammell featuring quilts displayed on a decorative rack, accompanied by a bouquet of colorful flowers.
Polly Prindle’s Book of American Patchwork Quilts
Image from Amazon
Cover of 'Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns' by Barbara Brackman featuring various quilt block designs.
Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns
Image from Amazon
A quilt block design featuring a 3x3 layout with red and cream colors, showcasing a Spool block pattern with alternating triangles and squares.

As you can see, our Spool Block is a Nine Patch block with a 3×3 layout. Of course, we’ve added some Half Square Triangles (HSTs) to create the Spool shape.

Time to Play!

The first thing we’re going to do is to simply our Spool block by using flippy corners instead of HSTs for the top and bottom of the spool. This tweak would actually save time when piecing the blocks for a quilt without changing the overall design. And we all know that saving time is golden in the quiltmaking process. The tweak also cleans up the look of the block by removing some of the seams.

A diagram of a Spool quilt block featuring a 3x3 layout with red and white fabric sections.

Let’s see what a quilt looks like using just this block, shall we? This design shows the blocks all pointing in the same direction. Hmmm. I like it, but I think we’re just getting started with the Spool block today.

A quilt design featuring a repeating pattern of red and white spool shapes arranged in a grid layout.

Let’s try alternating the block directions. Better, but not there yet.

Patchwork design featuring a grid of red and white spool quilt blocks arranged in a 3x3 layout.

Next up – let’s alternate block direction by row. Better and better! I really like the play between the different block directions. Reminds me a little bit of the vertical and horizontal strips I added to last week’s classic Nine Patch block.

Quilt design featuring a repetitive pattern of spool blocks in red and white.

Let’s add some fabrics to this one. I’m using a few prints from Moda’s Acorn Hollow collection. This layout definitely has some potential. I’m not usually a big fan of 2 fabric quilts, but I am liking the crispness of the design with only the 2 fabrics.

A quilt layout featuring a Spool block design in a 3x3 arrangement with orange and white color scheme.

Okay, let’s go back to our Spool block again. Instead of it being a 2 color block, let’s make it a 4 color block with a black center.

Colorful spool block design featuring a central black square surrounded by sections in red, orange, blue, and green.

Huh. Intriguing. Let’s see how it looks in a quilt. This is the same layout as our first red/white layout above. What a difference color can make!

Now let’s alternate the block directions. This is the second red/white layout above.

Colorful quilt design featuring a repeated Spool block pattern, arranged in a grid format with red, orange, green, blue, and black elements.

I like it, but with so many colors, you kind of lose the interesting design. Let’s back off on colors a little bit by adding more neutrals. Not loving it, but I do like the diagonal thing happening.

Colorful quilt design featuring a repeating block pattern with red, blue, black, white, and yellow sections arranged in a grid layout.

Not quite what I was expecting. Let’s tweak the colors some more. I’m going to use red, black, white, and grey which is one of my favorite colorways when I’m trying to perfect a design. I like working with these colors because of the strong contrast. I also changed the center square to black, so I get an interesting black shape in the blocks now – kind of looks like a megaphone to me.

A quilt design featuring a pattern of interlocking Spool blocks arranged in a 4x4 grid, showcasing vibrant colors of red, black, white, and grey.

Let’s rearrange the blocks to see what happens. This is interesting. It has a lot of movement.

Colorful quilt design featuring a repeating pattern of red, black, gray, and white shapes arranged in a geometric layout.

Let’s add some fabric now to see what it looks like. Here it is in 4 Hoffman batiks. I like it – it has a woven effect which keeps my eye moving over the design.

A quilt design featuring a Spool block layout, showcasing a combination of dark brown, teal, and light brown fabrics arranged in a repeating pattern.

Let’s play with the block arrangement a little bit more. I think there’s another better option still out there. We just have to play a bit until we get there. Almost there.

A quilt design showcasing multiple Spool blocks arranged in a 4x4 grid, featuring a combination of brown, teal, and dark purple fabrics.

I think it needs just one more thing tweaked. I’m going to reintroduce the 5th fabric in the block for the center squares. Yup! Got it. This is the one! A beautiful finished design! LOVE the 3-D effect. Lots of movement. Tons of interesting things going on.

Quilt design featuring a repeating Spool block layout in shades of teal, brown, and black, displaying a 3x3 pattern with various fabrics.

Do you remember where we started? A simple Spool block.

Quilt design featuring alternating red and white diamond shapes arranged in a grid pattern.

An here’s where we ended. Still a simple Spool block, but so much more!

A vibrant quilt design featuring a Spool block layout, with a mix of teal, brown, and dark purple fabrics arranged in a grid pattern.

Isn’t quilt design a fascinating journey? For me, it’s a lot of “what if?” questions. Also, I’m not afraid to make something really ugly – I can always delete it, right? And sometimes “something ugly” just needs another tweak or 2 to become something amazing.

I hope you give designing a try. I think you’ll be surprised at how fun it it. Whether you use graph paper and a pencil or Electric Quilt 8 software, I think you can come up with something that’s truly your own, something you love.

Stay tuned next week for another fun quilt design adventure! Any suggestions on a simple quilt block you’re just dying to see turned into an interesting quilt design? Leave a comment and tell me!

Until next week –

Sew. Laugh. Design. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

Let’s Design a Quilt Together — A Peek into My Quilt Design Process
Quilting Partners · Tips and Tricks · Tutorials · villa rosa designs

Let’s Design a Quilt Together — A Peek into My Quilt Design Process

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Hello Quilty Friends!

It’s Thursday again! Here’s hoping your week has been going well. Mine has been good and fast — just the way I love my quilt projects to be! LOL!

A lot of people ask about my design process so I thought I’d tell you a little bit about my process. Keep in mind that all designers have their own way of doing things and this post is only about my process.

Sometimes it’s like I eat, sleep, and breathe quilts and quilting! Not only do I read/flip through quilt books and magazines, I also look online for new trends. I talk to my quilt friends about what they are doing. I teach a quilt class once a month. I design patterns, write instructions, make quilts, take photos of quilts. I look at and get inspired by fabric. I jot down ideas and even do rough sketches of quilt blocks (which I promptly lose most of the time). I have even been known to wake up in the middle of the night with a new idea for a quilt. Whew!

Inspiration comes in a lot of different forms for me. Sometimes I see a fabric or collection and an idea pops into my head. Sometimes I start with a favorite quilt block and a quilt develops out of that. I have quite a few quilt block references that I use for ideas. Here are a few books in my library:

The first 2 books are by Barbara Brackman. The one on the left is the first edition of the 2nd book and is out of print and can be hard to find. I have both of them and love them both. The newer edition has even more blocks in it than the first edition! Barbara Brackman is one of the most renowned quilt historians of our time! You can visit her blog, Material Culture, HERE.

I also have Barbara Brackman’s software program, Blockbase, which works with Electric Quilt. You can find Blockbase HERE.

The third book, 5500 Quilt Block Designs, is by well-known quilter and author Maggie Malone. I have only known about this book since 2021 when a friend of mine showed it to me and I was so impressed, I had to grab a copy for myself. This book is out of print so it can be harder to find as well.

I have talked about Electric Quilt software before in an earlier post, but I want to mention it again here because I really couldn’t design quilts without it! Some designers sit down with a ruler and graph paper to draft quilt patterns, but I am an Electric Quilt user because it makes designing quilts a lot easier for me. You can find Electric Quilt 8 (EQ8) software HERE.

If you are interested in designing your own quilts, I totally recommend EQ8 if you’re into computers. If you’re not into computers, graph paper and a ruler might be your new BFF.

Once I get an idea, it’s time to play — which usually means I head to my computer and EQ8. I play with blocks, try different color combinations, download different fabrics to try all before I actually make anything at all. Some designers start by making the project and then work backwards to create the pattern and instructions. I do my designing on my computer and then make the project once I know what I am going to do. At least this is what I do probably 99% of the time. That’s one of the fun things about being a designer — I can try different ways of doing things. They don’t always work out for me, but that’s okay, there’s always another way to try.

Let me show you an example of my design process. For this example, I’m gong to start with my favorite quilt block, the Shoo Fly block.

When I am starting with the quilt design before I select the actual fabrics, I usually design in red, black, white, and grey. I don’t know exactly why I do that, but I think it probably has to do with the high contrast so I get a good sense of the pattern before I add actual fabric.

So, let’s make a wall quilt using 4 Shoo Fly blocks. It will look something like this:

Hmmmmm. This doesn’t really excite me. How about you? Let’s tweak it a little bit and see what happens next. We’ll add a bit more color, too.

Okay, this is better, don’t you think? By adding a sashing between the blocks, I was able to put another Shoo Fly block in the center. I changed the colors of the larger blocks to black and grey with the smaller center Shoo Fly block in red. It definitely has a lot more interest, doesn’t it? But it’s not quite there. Let’s tweak it a little bit more, shall we?

Now we’re getting somewhere! I got rid of the grey and went with plain black. Then I added 2 narrow blocky borders so I could continue to build out with more Shoo Fly blocks. Now I think we need a border.

Yay! A finished quilt design. I added an outer plain black border and a red binding. Pretty zippy, isn’t it? Now we’re gong to add some real fabric to the design.

Here are 3 different versions of our Shoo Fly quilt using Hoffman’s Paisley in Love batik collection. Of the 3, I think the last one with the white background is my favorite. I like the contrast, but I think I need to do a little more tweaking with the design, so back to the drawing board (or EQ8).

What are your thoughts? How would you improve this design? Any ideas?

Well, I hope you enjoyed a peek into my design process. Who knows? You might see this design as a VRD Rose Card some day.

Until next Thursday —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD