Complimenting blocks?
 

I am in a challenge to make a quilt that has a secondary block in it. In other words, If I do 2 blocks a third block will show. Not sure how else to explain this. I want to know if you have any pattern suggestions or how I should word this to google it. TY

You probably need 4 blocks to show the secondary block. Most of what I can think of would be stars for both the primary and secondary block. Here's one example:
http://quilterscache.com/L/LuckyStar2Block.html
The star is the block, but if you look at the corners of the block, you will see a half square triangle. This produces a pinwheel secondary block when put together.

You can look for more at http://quilterscache.com/QuiltBlocksGalore.html

I just googled and got this http://gatewayquiltsnstuff.blogspot....-volume-6.html

I have a book that shows different blocks that make secondary blocks when sewn together. I think it is called Hidden Blocks. Any block that has some sort of shape in the corners of the block will give you a secondary block when joined together. If you get two straight sided mirrors and put them at a 90 degree angle at the corner you can see the extra block.

Good luck, you will have fun searching!

I enjoyed making Bonnie Hunter's Strip Twist Quilt, the diamonds don't appear until you put the blocks together.

Here is the pattern. http://quiltville.com/striptwist.shtml

Mine is the last quilt pictured here. http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...s-t217855.html

That sounds like a fun challenge! I would think that using EQ 7 would be an easy way to find out what works.

A four patch and a half square triangle makes the Jewel Box pattern.

http://quilting.about.com/od/quiltpa..._box_quilt.htm

or you can google for "two block quilts" or "complimentary two block quilts"

Here is a neat trick to finding a block with this trait. If it has unmatching diagonal corners it will make a secondary pattern......for instance, maple leaf, attic windows, rolling star, Jacob's ladder, fox and geese, crosses and losses, buckeye beauty, Hays corner.

You can also use a folding mirror aligned along two adjoining sides of a block to see how it will appear when set adjacent to the same block. You can buy these now at some quilt stores or in catalogs like Clothilde, but I made mine for MUCH cheaper by buying a small piece of mirrored glass from a hardware store and having them cut it in half. I bound the edges with duct tape and used that to also make it hinge in the middle. I've had this folding mirror for 25 years, through 10 moves.

Thanks to Mary Ellen Hopkins for teaching this method to find the "two bells" blocks for that "graduate school look" in my quilts.:)

Jan in VA

What came to mind when I read your post was a book I have which has "hidden" blocks appearing due to the colors chosen in the main blocks. The "hidden" blocks are larger and appear in the background, sort of. I'll go through my books and find the name of it...

I made a quilt using one square and turned it a couple of different ways to achieve what you are asking. I found the block here

http://www.quilterscache.com/T/TennesseeBlock.html

and this is what is ended up like

http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...s-t201275.html

I love patterns that form others when you look into them.

Good luck with it and show us what you end up with.

The book I had in mind is called "Shadow Quilts". But I think you want two different blocks which create a third "block" when combined, and I have two books with patterns like that: "Pairing Up, 2 block quilts" by Nancy Mahoney (which is great!), and also "Creative Two-block Quilts" by Trice Boerens. As Jan in Va already said, you can usually accomplish this kind of third "block" by using a block with diagonally pieced corners. One block which is simple and works well like this is the Snowball block. Have fun choosing a design!

Jan, what do you mean by the 'two bells' blocks?

Found this tip:
http://myquiltgenie.blogspot.com/201...lt-blocks.html

this one is pretty and easy, too http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...ml#post6033065

I was looking at my Nine Patch Snowball quilt last night and thought there's a secondary design in it.
Here's a good example of what I mean.
http://karenwaterbury.blogspot.ca/20...-teaching.html

"Two bells" was the name Mary Ellen Hopkins gave it when you saw that a design or block or other trick in quilting that could make your quilt even more interesting; more than just setting it with the same block repeated over and over or set it together with sashings. (I don't think she ever made a quilt that was sashed?!) She meant that a single block did not have to be the 'finished' idea for a quilt.....use it as the vehicle to make the design even better.

These below were 'borrowed' from Quilterscache.com, put into the Paint program on my computer and merely rotated different ways. You could do the same with photocopies.

Jan in VA

TY all so much for your suggestions. I will truly find one to do. TY again!

Pepper Cory published a book called Cross Patch Quilts that used alternating blocks, and secondary patterns happened.

It is interesting to read the responses to this challenge.

Very cool, Jan. Thanks!

My favorite two block combo is Jack in the Pulpit and snoball. This make a really good looking grid pattern. The jack in the pulpit pattern is a very old pattern.

Sounds like a really fun challenge rootyr. Quilt block combos with secondary surprises are my favorite - especially when they use two blocks. I can't wait to look up all the suggestions you've gotten here.

I hope when you all present your challenge quilts that you can share some of your favorite results on the QB with all of us!

It just so happens that a couple of weeks back I ran across one combo while fooling around with EQ7 and my hubby asked me to make it into a lap quilt for him.
It combines Goose in the Pond with Fifty four-forty or Fight. You get a really nice secondary circle formed. Here's a mock up so you can see what I mean:

Jan you have so many great insights on how it works here! You always do!

Judi - I started fooling around with the two blocks you suggested - Snowball and Jack in the Pulpit.
First I substituted Jack in the Pulpit for Goose in the Pond in my pattern shown in above post. You get a similar secondary circle effect with a lot less piecing. :thumbup: Loved the results!
Then I tried it with the Snowball block in two different versions. I hope I chose the right type of snowball block. It too came out really neat. (Please pardon the hasty color and border choices)
Rootyr, I thought you might like to see them too:

I think I'm visually impaired - meaning I don't see secondary designs until I look really hard. I didn't see the circles until I stared at one block in the middle and then the circles magically appeared. Which is why I have to have a pattern or get my daughter to help me. She sees the blocks very well.

Misseva,
Perhaps you are too close to the design, I mean in proximity. Turn your back to the design and look at it through a mirror (like you would if you were checking the back of your hairdo). Or use the wrong end of a pair of binoculars.

Distancing yourself from the design is a quick way of finding problems, too, such as if a block is set/turned wrong.

Jan in VA

When I look at blocks like Jacob's ladder, it seems to me the diagonal corner is a 4-patch that looks like the other 3 corners. Can you explain to me what you mean by "unmatching diagonal corners" ? Sorry to be so dense. You always have such good explanations and I appreciate the time to spend trying to make quilting clearer.

Thanks Jan, I'll try that. My daughter can look at a quilt & actually "see" the block as in there's a triangle, square, & here is the whole block. Guess I'm just dense. But I do have one of those little devices to look thru for your quilts and I will try that next time.

Misseva I couldn't see it either and finally snuck up on it and there it was. To my eye, those patterns are too complex. I can't find a resting spot for my eye.

Sure makes the world interesting in how we see and respond to things.

Have you ever gone to this website and played at the quilt block playground? http://www.freequiltpatterns.info I think it is amazing! It will help you see your blocks before you put them together. A million blocks! That's enough for me.:)

I fretted over that after I posted it. I sort of meant the block needs one 'different' corner, can't remember exactly how MEH stated it to us originally. But using the mirror trick, in a later response, is a much better way to find that kind of block and is now what I use most.

Jan in VA

That "little device" is probably the one with which you can see multiple images of the block.....like a kaleidoscope. It's not what I mean. Use binoculars instead. Or look in a mirror at the block which is behind your back.....that's the cheapest way.:)

Jan in VA

I have this pattern, if you put 4 blocks together, it makes a secondary design where the corners meet. The original pattern was done with two blocks, repeating in a checkerboard style. If you want the pattern, it was free from McCalls, PM me and I will send you the info - I can't recall now exactly what month etc it was from and I am not near my sewing room. GEMRM
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Jan, was this the Mary Ellen Hopkins around Bakersville,N.C.? Just wondering.

This is Mary Ellen Hopkins who wrote It's Okay (If You Sit on My Quilt), owned Crazy Lady and Friends Quilt Store in Santa Monica, was an originator in the speed-piecing/strip-piecing quilting revival in the late 1970s/early 1980s, and started Quilt Sitters Circle for the students in her It's Okay classes all over the country. She's in her late 80s now and is in a nursing home in CA. Early in her life she was married to a cardiac (or thoracic?) surgeon; they remained friends after the divorce and she occasionally told funny stories on him.

Jan in VA