Bright Colours in Quilts

By Rose Smith

Do you ever buy really bright fabric because it looks so cheerful and then wonder what you can do with it? 

I’ve often done that but then felt that I can’t use it because the bright fabric would dominate the rest of the quilt.

There is one solution to this and that’s to make a quilt using all bright colours but toning it down with plenty of white fabric in the patchwork. 

In this particular block I love the way the bright patches almost float in all the white.  I don’t know the name of the block but I’m sure that it has several names.

This is another of those quilt blocks that is sewn from the middle towards the outer edges. 

The first stage is a four patch unit made of two 2.1/2” squares in both green and white.  Sew these together in pairs and then sew the pairs together.

Sew together two yellow and two white squares and place one yellow/white unit above the four patch and the other one below it.

Cut two 4.1/2” by 2.1/2” strips each of yellow and white and sew together to make an 8.1/2” strip for each side of the quilt block.

The last stage is a 4.1/2” strip each of blue and white sewn together and then added to the top and bottom of the block and then a 6.1/2” strip each of blue and white sewn to the sides of the block. 

That completes a 12.1/2” quilt block which is really bright and cheerful.

There are of course various ways of combining these blocks by rotating them to give different patterns for the overall quilt.

I personally prefer the right hand option because that has no solid blocks of colour – all the pieces float in the white which was the look I was hoping to achieve. 

Simple and attractive and very quick to make!

Rose Smith is passionate about quilting and likes to share her quilting ideas through tutorials and free quilt patterns on her website: Learn How to Quilt

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