Rona 7 In The Works

Dan here ~

‘Rona 7 required the thinking cap. In my head I needed something with a different layer of complexity. At first I thought I would use a V-block star like I did in ‘Rona 6 only this time using some of the box full of 4-patch units in the corners. Started to assemble a block… did not like it. 

Box of 4-patches

The star points of the V-block star got lost with the 4-patch so close. Hmmm. How about if I moved the V-star from the edge of the unit and added some background to try to get the star points to show up better. 

I played around with my tools and imagination and decided to make a 3” finished V-block then cut some off the sides and add background back on. Liked it ~ the star points, although smaller, now stood out from the 4-patch units. Good, I could still use up some of my bin full of 4-patch units in the design.


For the center I really wanted to use a square-in-a-square around a 4-patch unit, but did not want to have to align the points for the square-in-a-square block and the V-block star 32 times. So I floated a 4-patch in an oversized square-in-a-square unit to put background between those pesky points and found I had a block I liked and could live with. 

Now for the alternate block, I was thinking that a Banded Lemoyne Star might look kinda cool if I could come up with a frame that went with the theme I had going on in the other block.

I took a 4” finished Banded Lemoyne and framed it with background to float it and added a border around that with 1-1/2” finished squares. I had it ~ my 2 blocks!

I already had a sashing strip of background in mind and cornerstones made up of a square-in-a-square of a slightly different red and the same blue 4-patch. Just like I used in the center of the star block. Made the blue and red in all the 4-patch go one way in the block and the other way in the cornerstones just to keep the design interesting and me on my toes.

One thing I have not mentioned, is that as I build many of my quilts, I attach sashing strips and cornerstones to the right side and the bottom of the blocks as I build them.

I don’t really know if that means that they are now part of the block or if they are still sashing strips and cornerstones? I find that it just makes assembly easier. 

If you’ve been following along you already know I like making units and blocks ~ assembling the whole quilt… not so much. I have found this method easier for me. With this quilt I am using a sashing strip and cornerstones around the outside so they needed to be added to the blocks along the left side and top remembering to keep the orientation of the 4 patches in the cornerstones correct.

The main body of the top is complete, but I am still working on the pieced border. So I guess the full reveal will be next week. Hopefully I can get it finished by then.

Have a safe and healthy holiday which means stay home and follow the rules.