Quilt Settings — Part II

This week I’d like to continue our discussion about quilt settings.  The next setting we’ll pick up is the Medallion Setting.

Medallion Quilt Setting

A Medallion Quilt features a central motif surrounded by at least one border. They can feature pieced work, applique, a combination, or even be whole cloth quilts with the central motif and border achieved through quilted patterns.  This type of quilt was popular in Europe before it hitched a ride to American in the early 1800s and became just as popular here.  Broderie Perse quilts often used a medallion layout to highlight the best parts of the chintz fabric as well as conserve the scraps for additional quilts.  The imported chintz was expensive, and quilters sought to use every scrap of the fabric.  A medallion layout was a great choice because it did that very thing. 

The use of a Medallion Quit is also a great way to feature part of a quilt you want to make without committing to the entire pattern.  For instance, if you find a great applique quilt pattern but you’re not sure you want to make all the blocks, find one block which especially speaks to you and feature it as the center of the medallion.  Let’s say you think you want to make a Baltimore Album Quilt, which is a serious quilting commitment.  You must really like applique and have the ability to somewhat stay on a schedule so you can complete it.  The blocks contain lots of detailed applique (many, many small pieces) and numerous Baltimore Album patterns also have embroidery, inking, and silk ribbon work.  You would really like to try it, but may be cautious about the investment of both time and money.

A Medallion Quilt would be a great way to “test drive” a Baltimore without a great deal of either investment.  Choose a block you like (make sure it’s fairly representative of the kind in your Baltimore pattern).  You may need to enlarge it, so it won’t get lost in the center of the quilt.  Generally, I always make sure the finished center of my Medallion Quilt is divisible by two, three, four, or five (we’ll talk about why in a bit).  After it’s completed, add borders around it.  Since the first borders will need to be smaller so as not to overwhelm the center, this will be easier to do if the center length and width is divisible by two or three.  This border can be pieced or a solid strip of fabric.  Keep adding borders around the center medallion until it’s the size you want. You may even decide to add a few more Baltimore Album blocks to the medallion in the borders. 

Medallion Quilts are a great way to feature those blocks you’ve made in a quilt class that you don’t know quite what to do with. It also comes in handy for those odd quilt panels you’ve picked up here and there because you thought they were cute, but you didn’t know how to set them. 

But what happens if your center isn’t divisible by two, three, four, or five?  Don’t sweat it.  Simply add a strip of fabric around it to bring it to the desired size.  For instance, let’s say your center finishes at 13.   Thirteen is a prime number and only divisible by itself and one.  However, if the center block was 14-inches, it would be divisible by two.  Simply add a narrow 1-inch finished strip of fabric to the 13-inch center block to make it 14-inches square.  This would make the sides of the medallion divisible by two. These narrow strips of fabric used to bring a quilt square to the size needed are called floaters.  The same process can be followed even if your center medallion is a rectangle.  Let’s say the center is 13-inches x 11-inches.  Both 13 and 11 are prime.  However, if we add a one-inch floater to both the length sides and width sides, it will bring the rectangle to 14-inches x 12-inches.  Both of these are divisible by two and it would be easy to add a border of pieced 2-inch squares to the rectangle center. If you reference the picture of my Halo Medallion quilt (pictured above), you’ll notice I made use of several floaters.

On-Point Quilt Setting

It’s no secret this is my very favorite quilt setting.  I think this setting adds grace and movement to a quilt, as well as has the ability to showcase some stellar piecing and quilting.  This setting simply means that instead of setting your blocks in horizontal or vertical rows, you turn the blocks sideways, so they look like this:

This type of setting has some wonderful advantages.  First, yes it can showcase some gorgeous pieced or applique blocks.  Second, if you have a limited number of blocks, the on-point setting can help you make the quilt a bit bigger.  Third, if you have a wonderful fabric you want to show off, this is a great setting to use.  Fourth, if you use setting squares in the layout, you can really display your quilting talents. Fifth, this reason is personal – I think on-point layouts are just prettier than the others.  The disadvantages?  Well, there’s the issue of bias – you’ll have to deal with it more in this setting.  It does take a bit more fabric, so you’ll need to decide early on if this is how you want to alter the pattern.  And there are quite a few other decisions you need to make early on, too – sashing or no sashing, setting squares or no setting squares. 

Finally there is the matter of math.  If you are altering a horizontal or vertical set quilt pattern to an on-point one, there’s some mathing involved.  However, it’s not difficult math and if you can remember the Quilter’s Cake, well…then you’re good to go (and if you don’t, we’ll review).

The very first decision to make concerns the blocks.  Make sure they will look okay if they are rotated and put on point.  Blocks such as these:

 Are fine.  Yes, they look a little different when they’re put on point rather than a straight line setting, but this “off-kilteredness” gives the block an entirely different vibe.  However,  blocks such as these:

When there is a distinct bottom and top will need to be re-drawn in order to be correctly oriented in an on-point setting. 

If you’re happy with the blocks on point, now decisions will need to be made concerning the layout.  You can certainly sew the blocks together without sashing or setting blocks:

You will need four corner triangles and some side-setting triangles.  For this particular quilt, we’ll need 12 side setting triangles.  Making these triangles is not difficult.  First, let’s review what Quilter’s Cake is – it’s simply the formula 1.414.  Hold that formula in mind, because it’s used a lot in converting a straight set quilt into one that’s on point. First let’s work with the four corner triangles before moving onto the side-setting triangles.

For the Four Corner Triangles:

Step One – Take the size of the finished squares you wish to set on point.  For the sake of this quilt, let’s say our finished blocks are 10-inches finished. 

Step Two – Divide the size of the finished square by 1.414.  In our case 10-inches divided by 1.414 = 7.0721358

Step Three – Take that answer and multiply it by 2.   So 7.0721358 x 2 = 14.1442716, which we will round to 14 ¼-inches.

Step Four – Add 7/8-inch to 14 ¼-inch – 7/8 + 14 ¼ = 15 1/8-inches. 

So for the four corner triangles, cut two squares, each 15 1/8-inches and cut them both once across the diagonal so you have four triangles.  The long side of these triangles are cut on the bias, so be careful not to stretch them.    It would be a good idea to carefully press some starch into them and set them aside until you’re ready to sew them on.

For the Side-Setting Triangles (Also Called Quarter-Square Triangles)

Step One – Take the size of the finished square and multiply it by 1.414.  Staying with our 10-inch blocks, this is how we would begin calculating the setting triangles. 10-inches x 1.414 = 14.14

Step Two – Add 1 ¼-inches for seams.  14.14 + 1 ¼-inches = 15.38, which we can round to 15.  However, I may give it a little extra “skootch” room and cut my square at 15 ¼-inches.  You can always trim the triangles a bit after they’ve been sewn into the quilt center.

Unlike the corner square triangles, you’ll cut the 15 ¼-inch squares twice across the diagonal, so we have four triangles per block.  Since we need 12 side-setting triangles, and we get four per each 15 ¼-inch square, we need to cut three 15 ¼-inch squares.

With these triangles, the bias is on the two short sides of the triangles.  Those need to be treated carefully so the bias doesn’t stretch.  Press starch into the triangles and set aside until needed.

You can also add setting blocks to the on-point quilt. 

If you have a great focus fabric, this is a wonderful way to incorporate it with an on-point setting.  With this case, the method of calculating the corner triangles and setting triangles remain the same. 

Sashing and cornerstones can also be used in an on-point setting:

The math isn’t any more difficult than it was before. 

For the Side-Setting Triangles

Step One — Add the width of the finished sashing to the finished block.  In this case, we will keep our finished block size 10-inches and add 2-inch sashing.  10-inches + 2-inches = 12-inches

Step Two – Multiply 12-inches by 1.414 = 16.968, which we will round up to 17-inches

Step Three – Add the 1 ¼-inch seam allowance:  17-inches to 1 ¼-inches = 18 ¼-inches.

You will need three 18 ¼-inch squares for this quilt, then cut the squares on the diagonal twice. 

For the Four Corner Triangles

Step One – Add the width of the finished sashing to the size of the finished block.  Again, we’ll keep working with our 10-inch finished block and our 2-inch finished sashing.  10-inches + 2-inches = 12-inches.

Step Two – Divide the new width by 1.414.  12-inches/1.414 = 8.486, which we will round up to 8 ½-inches.

Step Three – Add ¾-inch for the seam allowance. 8 ½-inches + ¾-inches = 9 ¼-inches.

Cut two 9 ¼-inch squares and then cut them once across the diagonal.

At this point, I know what some of you are thinking:  That’s a lot of math.  It is quite a bit of math, but it’s not that difficult and at least you don’t have to memorize formulas like you did in high school.  You can keep them written down in a notebook or stored in the note section of your phone.  But what if you’re really digging the on-point look but don’t want to go through all the trouble of setting the quilt that way?  There is an alternative.  While it doesn’t look exactly like an on-point quilt, it can showcase your blocks and you don’t have to work with as much bias as you do with the traditional on-point setting.  It all has to deal with this block:

This is called a square-in-a-square or the economy block.  The block you want to put on point is placed in the middle and is surrounded by four triangles, which allows you to set the block in horizontal rows or vertical columns. 

There is a bit of math involved with this.  Take the size of the square in the middle and divide it by 2.  Let’s continue to stick with our 10-inch square. 

10/2 = 5

Now add a ½-inch for seam allowances – 5 + ½ = 5 ½-inches. 

This time we will use the stitch-and-flip method for attaching the side triangles.  This means you will need to cut four  5 ½-inch squares for your 10-inch center square. 

On the wrong side of the fabric of the four 5 ½-inch squares, draw a diagonal line from one corner to another. 

This is a bit like making flying geese, so hang in there.  Position one of the 5 ½-inch squares in the top left-hand corner, with the right sides of the fabric together.   Sew along the diagonal line you drew on the square.

Then repeat this process in the bottom right corner.

Press the squares outward to form triangles and trim the fabric beneath away.

Repeat the same process for the top right corner and then the bottom left corner.

Of course this doesn’t look exactly like an on-point quilt, but it’s close.  There’s less bias to deal with and sashing/sashing with cornerstones can always be added if desired. And this setting will add width and length to the quilt top, so be sure to adjust the border measurements accordingly.

I hope these two blogs on quilt settings will open up your imagination and creativity.  There are no hard and fast rules in quilting.  You can alter a pattern nearly any way to suit you.  Often this does mean planning ahead, especially before you purchase fabric or cut anything out.  So the next time you start a new quilt project, pause before you begin to pull fabric from your stash or purchase it online or from your LQS.  Think about the layout and if you want to make your quilt that way or change the layout.  It really is all up to you and what you like.

Until Next Week, From My Studio to Yours,

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Felix