Storm at Sea Quilt Pattern

Part 1: Block Basics

The Storm at Sea quilt pattern makes for an exciting quilt—full of movement—all due to the juxtaposition of square and rectangular blocks.

Your eyes try to tell you there's curved piecing, but there's not a curved seam in the quilt, not anywhere!

Simple enough for the confident beginning quilter. Just download our free paper piecing quilt block patterns. (The link is near the bottom of this page.)

Feeling more adventurous? Then download coloring pages of straight and/or on point layouts of the quilt and design to your heart's content!

All the quilt block and layout illustrations on this page were created in Electric Quilt 7 (or EQ7 for short).

I love this program. It's easy to use and a brilliant design tool—allowing you to change fabrics and layouts with a click of your mouse. I heartily recommend it to anyone who's interested!

The Building Blocks

The Storm at Sea quilt block itself is composed of two separate block units, a square in a square (in two sizes) and a diamond in a rectangle. It is shown below in one of two ways, each draw on a different grid.

We've kept the first illustrations simple by using just two colors. But as you'll see later, you needn't limit your design efforts to just two.

Block A: 3x3 grid

Block B: 4x4 grid

Storm at Sea Quilts made with Block A

This first quilt layout is a straight set using Block A. Note how the lines of the quilt pattern fool your eye into thinking there are pieced curves. Extra 'diamond in a rectangle' and 'square in a square' quilt blocks are needed to complete the design.

6 x 8 blocks

This next quilt is exactly the same layout as the first, except that the colors have been swapped—what was blue is now white and what was white is now blue.

6 x 8 blocks

Now take our first coloring of Block A and set it in an on point quilt layout. The piecing immediately seems more complicated, the curved illusion more prominent, but it's still the same straight line seams in simple blocks.

5 x 7 blocks

Storm at Sea Quilts made with Block B

As with Block A, this block also creates the illusion of curved pieced where none exists. The designs look more intricate than the previous quilts due to the additional pieces in each block.

Our first example is laid out in a straight set.

5 x 6 blocks

And now showing the same block, same setting with the two colors reversed. A simple change, quite different results.

5 x 6 blocks

Finally showing our Block B set on point in the second block coloring.

5 x 6 blocks

When set as a two color quilt, the colors are placed exactly the same for all the 'diamond in a rectangle' blocks. The same goes for the 'square in a square' blocks, regardless of which size it is. That's a nice simplification to the piecing.

Dial up the Drama!

Now let's have some fun with the color.

We now add red and green to our previously colored blue and white Block B. The result is the block shown to the right.

The basic 'rectangle in a diamond' and 'square in a square' quilt blocks are the same in every other way.

Now let's lay it out in straight rows...

7 x 7 blocks

...and now set on point. Note we've reduced the number of rows and columns so that you can see the design better.

5 x 5 blocks

The additional colors really change the 'feel' of the quilt. It almost looks like the knitting patterns called 'intarsia' or a a woven tapestry.

And to think, all this is from simple paper pieced quilt blocks.

When you're ready for your own
Storm at Sea Quilt...

...we have several free goodies for planning and stitching your next Storm at Sea quilt.

• Storm at Sea paper piecing quilt blocks.

  You must set 'Page Scaling' to 'None' in your printer's setup menu to ensure these blocks print at the proper size.

  For quilts based on Block A, you need to print one set of these two pages for each block in your quilt. To complete the quilt print an extra 'Page 2 of 2'. You will end up with one extra 3"x6" diamond in a rectangle block pattern.

• To help design your Storm at Sea Quilt, print one, some or all of our coloring pages.
  • Block A: Straight set quilt layout, 5x7 blocks
  • Block A: On point quilt layout, 5x6 blocks
  • Block B: Straight set quilt layout, 5x7 blocks
  • Block B: Straight set quilt layout, 5x6 blocks

You'll need Adobe Reader (the latest version is recommended) installed on your computer in order to open and print any of these patterns or coloring pages. You can get Adobe Reader here (a new window will open so you can download it without leaving this page).

If you want to open the file in your browser window, just click on the link. However, if you want to download the file to view later, then right-click on the link and choose "Save Target As" or "Save File As." Then select where you want to save the file on your hard drive.

Once you have saved the file, locate where you saved it, and double click to open.

In order to print, open the downloaded file, and select the "Print" option.

Let's move on to Storm at Sea Quilt Pattern, Part 2: Transform Your Quilt Design.

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