Antique Tile Quilt Design, Pt 2

In Part 1, we worked our way through straight and on-point sets made from our  Antique Tile quilt block  without sashing, and then with simple solid, and finally pieced sashings.

A couple of the designs are interesting enough to consider making quilts from.

The majority, however, were discarded.

This is not unusual. If we loved all our ideas, we probably weren't discriminating enough.

If you've landed on this page and would like to see how simple the block is to make, click here .

You've also seen the benefit of using our  Electric Quilt software  to quickly audition new ideas, all without wasting an inch of our precious quilt fabric.

Another equally valuable benefit is that drafting the different options — working from the most basic to more involved — does  get those creative juices flowing.

New ideas do occur to you as you actually work through the process. 

Contrary to urban mythology, they do not just spring fully-formed from nowhere.

The quilt designs that follow on this page are ideas that only came to me as I worked through the process - from basic to more involved. 

Ba-Zinga! Dazzling Design Options

Still focusing on the place between where the two green rectangles meet, now it's time to add another design element to our sashing.

What's more, let's widen the sashing strip to two grid units - remember our original Antique Tile quilt block is drawn on a 6x6 grid.

Up the ante in your sashing

Try a sashing strip with a quarter square triangle  in the center like this ...

... and keep our old friend, the red cornerstone. This is the result.

Yep! That's our simple, beginner friendly Antique Tile block. But this does not look anything like a beginner quilt, does it!

Finally!

We're getting somewhere!

If you're having a hard time seeing the sashing, tilt your head to the side and focus on the large red squares.

Do not you love how the block just seems to disappear in this one? These are the kind of designs that just make my heart sing!

Our Antique Tile block is looking pretty grand!

It's a nice effect!

Float the center field of blocks

For the final design option, let's take all the parts (original Antique Tile, quarter square triangle sashing and red cornerstones) and return to a straight set layout.

Nice, but a bit busy around the edges.

To refine it, we'll float this Antique Tile quilt design within the borders of the quilt.

First remove all the pieced patches from the entire outside edge.

Replace our outside-edge quarter square triangle sashings with ones pieced like this...

... and for ONLY these outside edge patches , replace the red cornerstones with ones cut from the background fabric.

This is the result.

In this slight variation, the green and red fabrics within the block are swapped. Everything else remained the same.

It has a totally different look, does it.

So with a little perseverance and some help from our Electric Quilt software, we've turned this simplest of blocks to construct into something truly special.

Perfect for a beginning quilter!