coffeebreak

I want to make a christmas quilt and was looking at fabric today. I like using the small squares (3," finished) size and making item blocks (like a block that is a star or a pinwheel etc) out of HST's. But in looking at the fabric...the "image" print is all to big for that. If I ut a 3,1/2 sq out of it to make a HST...the image I am trying to capture would be deminished. For example...there was one with some cute santa's on it...they measured probably 3 inches sq....I couldn't use that to make a HST....the image of the santa would be cut off. Unless I cut a very large square to capture the design, I couldn't use that print. And even at that...It probably wouldn't look good as a HST, simply because it is so large.

So what can you do with this larger image fabric and still have the "quilt" look to it? "quilt" look meaning the squares and designs made out of the squares. I know they would work as sashes, but I was designing a quilt with square of christmasy items...like the little santas or reindeer or holly..in a HST with a solid opposite side. I know I can make this pattern the center of a block like a Northern Star and have the solids be the points...but so many of the quilts I make are that same pattern, I was hoping for something different. Any suggestions?