I still have some square-based sawtooth star designs to share with you (following on from last week’s sketch), but I’m taking a slight detour this week to share something else…mostly because I figured this blog post would be easier/quicker to write 🙂

This is one of those designs that’s so simple and satisfying that I’m convinced it has to be out there already, as a quilt pattern or a finished quilt – surely! I had a look through my Pinterest boards (for quilts with squares, stripes, or solids), with no luck (although I scroll through those boards pretty fast). So if you’ve seen this before, please let me know.

The inspiration for this design came via one of the quilts I’m currently making – a version of Sunday sketch #416. I’ll write more about that quilt when it’s done, but here’s a pic I snapped when I was finishing up the quilt top.

I just happened to fold the top into a square featuring 9 smaller squares, and ta da! A new block idea was born. You can see at the top of the pic that the quilt features a floral fabric with bright orange borders, and the bright orange fabric with floral borders – hence the two blocks in this week’s design.

The design is also like Sunday sketch #415, which featured bordered squares that created larger shapes adjacent to their opposite colourways. (#415 and #416 were related, of course.)

There’s not a whole lot more to say about the design itself – it really is quite simple. So let’s play with some colours!

I feel like this design is probably most striking in only two colours, but it can work with more too (I’ve used four here, as there are four blocks in each row and column).

When there are more colours, I think the design needs something to tie all the blocks together a bit, so I use a common colour across all blocks. Here I’ve alternated between colouring the borders or the squares in a dark blue.

Obviously this design could work in prints as well as solids. Well, maybe one print and one solid! Things could get pretty busy with two or more solids. I’m really pleased with how the floral and solid work together in my rendition of Sunday sketch #416, so I think something similar could work here too. And of course, being block-based, the design could be made bigger or smaller depending on your desired size. I designed the blocks as 16″ finished (4″ squares and 1″ borders), but you could scale them up or down as required too. Easy peasy!