The 6 Best Stash Busting Quilt Blocks

Scrappy One Patch, Nine Patch, Friendship Star, Four Patch, Pinwheel and Square in a Square

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I was thinking recently about the best blocks to use to bust my over abundant stash. My thoughts were what are the fastest and easiest blocks to construct and still make interesting quilts? It brought me back to the origins of my quilting experience at the beginner phase of my career as a quilter.  Sometimes it is excellent to revisit these times when there is so much social media enticing you to make quilts with the newest and hottest technique in quilting!

Lots of the new modern styles still incorporate the above blocks with bigger proportions and innovative layouts.

Can you think about how you can use these traditional blocks in a different way to be a little more contemporary with your design and still use up your stash?

The Scrappy One Patch block shown above uses up many pieces of fabric, you could "super size it"  just like fast food and make it quick with strip piecing. Or break it up into different parts.  An innovative layout could look like  the one below from Crafsy's "Inspiring Scrap Quilting Ideas" blog post:

Look at the cute 4 patch blocks in the centre, combine 2 blocks in one

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The nine patch is classic and can be used creatively in an outside of the box manner.  Check out the layout below from ReannaLily Designs 

There is a free tutorial on how to make the above quilt here

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The friendship star combined with a 9 patch was a quilt I worked on many years ago as a donation to The Quilt Project for Breast Cancer and I learned to love this block. Of course I love stars and friends, so naturally I love this block! A beautiful layout below showing one block with friendship stars on the back of a quilt:

Read all about this artist Catherine Redford here. Isn't it great that this is a quilt back? It looks fantastic! Hmmm..... quilt backs are a great stash buster!

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The 4 patch block is a real cutie and the easiest of them all, made from 2 strips of fabric of equal width and length making it quick to sew up. It makes a great combination block with others as well. ​

The above is some work I have done recently with a baby quilt design.  It uses the 4 patch and the pin wheel block in combination, showing you  secondary patterns. Stay tuned and follow this blog and I will be showing my newest pattern very soon!!

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The pinwheel shown above and below is also an extremely versatile block and quick to sew up, especially if you make the 1/2 square triangle blocks with "the magic 8 method". Check out "The Magic 8 Method" and a great tutorial here on Craftsy.com/blog

This is what you can make with 4 large squares of fabric and 2 attempts at the magic 8 method--- not just pinwheels  anymore!

The above are not sewn up yet. My friend Linda came over for a sewing day and we were just messing around with the layout.  

Pinwheels mixed with other blocks in this really pretty quilt above is from cluckclucksew.com - check it out here.  So use up your pinwheels in combination with other larger pieces, such a beautiful way to showcase these very fresh looking blocks! 

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The square in a square block is also a great block that you can make from one centre block and then a slightly larger set of 2 blocks cut on the diagonal to make the corner  connecting triangles. These blocks also make great quilts! Look at the one below with sashing and corner stones between the blocks. What an amazingly simple but effective layout!

Check out the blog post featuring the above quilt---- 10 Modern Quilt Patterns & Tips for Beginners at Craftsy.com

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I hope you enjoyed this post and can see yourself using traditional blocks to bust your stash in a new way!

Happy Tuesday! 😊