QuiltGenius Design Tool Kit: Design Your Own Quilt Blocks!

Like many of you, I love tinkering around with my own quilt designs and over the years have collected a random assortment of architectural stencils to aid in sketching out my design ideas on paper. (A software program was not in the cards as I did not want to spend a couple hundred dollars on a software program that I would also have to spend a couple hundred hours learning how to use!)

Frustrated with shuffling through a dozen (or more!) different stencils and with the lack of the particular sizes and shapes needed for designing a quilt, I decided to create my own ideal stencil set.

The first thing I needed was a full set of basic stencil shapes: Squares, triangles, half-square triangles, quarter-square triangles, circles, flying geese, rectangles, and square-in-a-square designs. 

But as I played around with those, I realized that it would be really helpful to have certain shapes placed together in rows so that I could easily repeat them for checkerboard and granny square patterns and borders.

Finally, I wanted an assortment of shapes for creating hexie, triangle and 3D/diamond designs.

Now that I had all the shapes I needed, I decided I really needed a quick and easy way to draw the outline of my layout. The full-page “Quilt Layout” stencil allows me to design up to a king-size quilt (108” x 108” at a 4” block size) and there was even room on the stencil to add sashing shapes!

Of course, to make the kit complete, graph paper needed to be included. And not just any graph paper. I wanted to have the standard 1/4” graph paper of course (I use this the most) but also a diagonal graph paper for creating on-point designs as well as isometric graph paper for hexie and 3D quilts. Most importantly, I needed a heavy-weight paper that could stand up to multiple design changes. I use my eraser A LOT!

A 16-page instruction booklet is also included to get you started but keep an eye on this space as I’ll be sharing more fun ideas and inspiration for using your QuiltGenius Design Tool Kit in the weeks to come!

In the meantime, here are a couple of challenges for you:

Pick one of the blocks (from the Quilt Builder Card Deck #2) below and sketch out a repeat pattern. How does it look if the blocks are oriented the same way? Does alternating the orientation affect the design? Or not? How would color and value affect the outcome? 

OR

Pick any two of the blocks below and sketch them out an alternating pattern with your stencils, paying attention to the secondary pattern that emerges. Did the outcome surprise you? Is it a successful design? (Fair warning: Not all of them are!) How would color and value affect the design? 

We’d love to see your creative designs! Post your designs or responses to the challenge above on Instagram, tag C&T Publishing (@ctpublishing), and use the hashtag #QuiltGeniusToolKitDesign. We'll repost your design for all to see!  

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Shop the QuiltGenius Design Tool Kit and the Quilt Builder Card Deck #2 at C&T Publishing!

Betsy La Honta is the Product Development & Manufacturing Manager at C&T Publishing.