Can Single Blocks make a beautiful Quilt?

I’m going to let the quilts speak for themselves...

When single blocks have to stand alone, the whole design depends entirely upon the color selections and fabric choices. Get them right and WOW! Get them wrong, boy-o-boy can it get ugly!

A secret to accomplishing this is to use a dramatic center fabric. Then checking the printer’s codes as a guide using fabrics that are similar in colors to the code.

In the first single blocks quilt (above), "Best of All", I started with the pansy prints and a dusty rose solid. There are three kinds of pansy print—a black background, a light background and a blue background for the pansies. It was fun to see these fabrics go together after collecting them the last few years.

The second blocks quilt, "Broken Band", was made with left over fabrics from a quilt called “Blue Ice”. The center is snowflakes, then a light tan background, then a light blue wintery fabric, and a Delft Blue solid fabric. Then a off-white with lots of dots like a snowy day.

The last single blocks quilt, "Mums Garden", started with a fabric with big bold flowers of pink and burgundy—fancy cut—for the center and corners. I had a tan and white chunk of fabric given to me that fit the background (just barely enough!). I used a medium rose solid and a burgundy solid for the rest of the fabrics. I used the flowers to match the solids.

(This pattern had no name when I found it. I decided to call it "Mum’s Garden" for a variety of reasons: In Britain "mom" is "mum" and the flowers in my quilt are mums.)

The blocks above were initially designed to make a quilt using multiples of them. Usually the blocks are separated by sashes, sometimes placed side by side.

Once I started blowing up the blocks, though—and making One Block Quilts—I’ve come to really appreciate their beauty standing alone. The Traditional Blocks speak beautifully for themselves.