One of the buttons in EQ8 is ‘Clip and Flip’. This takes a quarter of a block and then flips it in a variety of ways. So going back to our favourite block – Ohio Star – what happens if we use this magic button? These are the first four
But do these look any good in a quilt? Here’s some 4 x 4 block settings to give you an idea
They do look a bit the same. But what if we combine them in pairs?
Slightly more interesting. I think it could be even more interesting with a different block or more adventurous colouring, and also more random turns and flips of the quarter as I didn’t get round to using the random button. Something for another time perhaps. Meanwhile if you want to play with a quarter Ohio Star you can download the rotary cutting instructions for a nine block.
I’m still playing with EQ and Ohio Star blocks this month. Some time ago I made a couple of quilts putting smaller blocks into the plain corner and centre squares. When I made the second quilt I decided to turn the centre slightly and add four more stars.
But we could use Sawtooth stars – first putting them into an Ohio Star block
and then putting Ohio Stars into a Sawtooth Star (and turning the quilts on point as well).
But why stick with boring squares? You can make the block as a diamond instead
and use it in Baby (Tumbling) Blocks
You can always use one of the Ohio Star Variations and put lots together to make a really complicated looking quilt – these use a 3 x 3 setting of blocks to make quilts about 48 inches square
Or how about 8-Pointed Stars with Ohio Star blocks in the points? Changing the colours in the blocks, or putting 4-patches in the corners and centres, as for the Tumbling Blocks quilt, can change the look of the quilt
If you would like to play with diamond Ohio Stars you can download templates here. The Eight Pointed Stars will finish at about 50 inches square without a border and three Tumbling Block diamonds will make a unit 15.5 x 18 inches
Having messed about with Ohio Star by adding borders and/or different bits in the corners I then seriously messed with it by splitting up the triangles and then the centre square.
I’m not sure I would want to actually make many of these but there are some interesting possibilities here – especially if you change the colours. I’ve stuck with the default colours of the original block but it might have been better to play with colour as well as shapes – next winter perhaps when the sun isn’t shining and there aren’t so many jobs to do in the garden.
I haven’t given you any patterns for these but with the aid of squared paper it shouldn’t be too difficult to draft them for yourselves. If you get stuck drop me an email (I do check my mail every few weeks, just in case) and let me know which one you want and what size so I can ask EQ to come up with the cutting plan.
The block we chose for April over on our Chris and Barbara site was Bluebell. Lots of pointy points in this block so we have just given you templates in this month’s download – for both 6 inch and 8 inch blocks.
Looking back at some of the ‘messing about’ with EQ8 and Ohio Star a few ideas for adding things in the blank squares of the block came to light. The default Ohio Star block in the EQ library is this one
Adding different elements to just the corner squares we get these (although there’s scope for more, which we’re sure you will find). You can download some cutting instructions for these variations here.
And then turning them into quilts produced these
Sashing helps to separate the blue star points and making cornerstones the same colour as the added bits increases the illusion of another star. Piecing and colouring the sashing would perhaps aid this further.
In the winter months when its cold, dark and damp – nothing to be done in the garden, too dark to see to thread a needle – its time to play with quilt design software. Usually this is EQ8, I do have QuiltPro but I find EQ easier to have fun with. Over the next few months I thought we’d explore a few things I have been playing with, and a few things that EQ does to help with inspiration. The huge bonus is that you can make dozens of virtual quilts and no one says you have to actually make them out of real fabric.
Its the beginning of the year so let’s start with that perennial favourite – the Ohio Star, and I haven’t changed its colour – this is the default colouring from EQ. You can download the cutting instructions for a 12 inch block here and check on our free blocks page to download 6 inch and 9 inch ones.
To start with I chose to use the Serendipity facility and then chose ‘Frame Block’ – there are dozens of frames to choose from here and I spent a happy day playing with all of them. To start off with though I thought I’d just use the three most basic ones – the ones most of us are likely to use.
First up is one that just adds a border to two sides.
Then four sides
and then four sides with cornerstones.
The Ohio Star block straight set 4 x 4 into a quilt can look a bit so-so although adding sashing, especially with cornerstones, improves matters as it makes the block boundaries more defined.
But then what happens when we start to play with our bordered blocks? I had the option of mixing up the blocks – using one, two or all of them in a quilt; turning or flipping the blocks; and of course adding sashing.These are the ones I liked best, choosing just one of each.
I haven’t given any sizes for sashing as it depends on the size of your starting blocks and on personal preference.
If you want to play but don’t have EQ you can do what we did back in olden times – draw everything out on squared paper, cut it up, rearrange it etc. – its just not as quick!
Over on our sister site we choose a block each month and then explore some colour and quilt setting possibilities. This month the block is Pine Tree – one of several with this name. We thought you might also like to try making some of these blocks so each month here on our Meadowside Designs site we will host the free cutting instructions as well as the colouring pages.
This is the default colouring of the Pine Tree block from Electric Quilt as well as the greyscale.
We have included both 6 inch and 12 inch rotary cutting and templates in our free downloadable PDF.
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