There is almost never anything new in design; indeed, the best designs probably are made with a sense of history. So far we’ve modified overall quilt designs to make new ones; this time we’re going to modify blocks. So here we go: 1. Stretch it:
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- Block 1
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- Block 2
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- Block 3
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- Block 4
Quilt made with Block 3
Quilt made with Block 4
2. Tilt it, or stretch and tilt it:
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- Block 5
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- Block 6
This quilt is made from Block 1, tilted, with half the blocks tilted the other way
3. Cut it and shuffle the pieces; rotate them if you like:
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- Cut
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- Shuffle
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- Shuffle & Rotate–Block 7
This quilt is made from block 7, with the blocks rotated various ways to make the pattern
4. Cut it and insert something. This will distort the block and you’ll have to trim to make it even:
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- Block 8
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- Block 9
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- Block 10
Quilt made from Block 10 and a plain block with strips inserted the same way
All of this fooling around might be a good use for some of those orphan blocks–what have you got to lose? And If you find some modifications you really like, try them out in a quilt: Please make some designs and send them to me–I’d love to see what you come up with!
Zippy Quilts 
Great ideas here. I especially like the cut-shuffle half-square triangles. Thanks for the inspiration.
Thanks for following!
Hi Mary J. I was thinking about the cut/shuffle triangles. Of course if you literally cut them rather than build the units new, you lose a half inch. You’d either have a non-square, or you’d need to trim to square. So to get the half inch back, you could insert as you did for later ones. If your cut is perpendicular to the edge (90 degree angle) then a half inch finish insert will resize it to what it was. And there is no need to cut at the halfway point, either, of course. Can cut anywhere…
Likely you’ve thought of these possibilities. My brain is still having fun with them. I think I have some spare triangles downstairs — going to check them out!
Thanks for the inspiration.
Right! I have no problem with non-square “squares”, but I like your add-a-strip idea even better! More improvisation! More options! Thanks for your attention to this. I’m going to start following your blog, so I expect we’ll have some fun exchanges!
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