Ruth’s One Block Wonders

Before I jump into this week’s topic, I wanted to share a link. The Winter Quilt Show I wrote about in last week’s post was a “Viewer’s Choice” show. The winners have been posted on the museum’s site. Please go to: https://www.wiquiltmuseum.com/quilt-contest-winter-quilt-show and scroll to the bottom to read all about them.

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And now for this week’s topic:

Our Fiberistas group had a sew day in December and our newest member brought along some fun show and tell. Ruth loves to make One Block Wonder quilts based on the book by Maxine Rosenthal. 

I’ve made many “Stack and Whack” style quilts over the years, and even came up with my own way of making a block I call Spin Star.

It’s such fun to see all the different blocks that come from one multicolored print! I typically look for a large print with a swirly feel, as in the border fabric above. Another example is this fabric designed by Jane Sassaman:

It worked great! To make my spin star blocks I needed to find 8 repeats in the fabric, so I could cut 8 identical triangles:

Then the fun comes in laying out the triangles to see the different patterns that result. If I put the green corner in the center I get this:

but if the yellow goes central it’s a completely different look:

The hard part is deciding which is the best. And each stack of these triangles could make two different blocks. Too much fun! It’s especially delightful to teach this class because everyone gets to see the amazing variety of blocks the others make.

My technique makes “swiss cheese” out of the fabric, but the blocks make it all worthwhile.

The One Block Wonder variation of Stack and Whack Ruth shared uses strips of the fabric repeat and doesn’t result in “holey” fabric. It makes a much busier quilt because the hexagons all butt up to one another. It’s a different, yet exciting look.

Ruth showed us the back of her quilt which was made from her original chosen fabric.

This is a print I wouldn’t have thought of using in a Spin Star because the pattern repeat is quite large with a lot of open space. Ruth said it still worked for the One Block pattern – and then she showed us! She said she ended up with a large number of hexagonal, kaleidoscope type blocks, but she found the variety of color and design was overwhelming in one large quilt. She chose to divide them into three smaller quilts. The first contained the more multi-colored, busier blocks:

She then chose to put the blue/white blocks in quilt number two.

And the last quilt used the greenish blocks. This one’s my favorite.

I think the large amount of white background in her original fabric calmed down the busy-ness of her quilts and made them so interesting. Her choice of fabrics for the “borders” in each was spot on. Great job Ruth!

We were all intrigued and asked her to show us how it’s done. She did just that at our January Sew Day, but you’ll have to wait until next week to see how that went.

Have you made a Stack and Whack style quilt you’d like to share? Please email me photos!

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And one more thing!

Nancy sent me a photo of a quilt she recently completed with this note:

“Attached is a picture of a quilt I recently finished, “From the Farm:  Ken’s Story”, which was inspired by a quilt I saw at the 2022 Quilt Show in Madison and then featured on one of your blogs a couple of months ago.  Making this quilt was quite an “adventure” but definitely worth it.  More importantly, the recipient really loves it.  Definitely worth all the effort.“

Great job Nancy! Thanks for sending the photo!