Using a Prairie Block as an Alternate Block in a Quilt

I was recently given some Charlie Harper “Bird Architects” fabric. The drawings of the birds are beautiful but it took some creative fussy cutting to get blocks for a quilt. My cuts ended up being 8 !/2 x 10 1/2 inches. That’s not a typical quilt block size or shape. What to do?

I finally decided to add a 2 1/2 inch strip of fabric to the fussy cut blocks. That gave me a block that was 10 1/2 inches which will finish at 10 inches square. My decision was what to use as an alternate block in the quilt.

I considered nine patch blocks, both squares and more modern using some rectangles in place of all square pieces. The rectangles might have been interesting, but not the traditional nine patch block. I thought about a rail fence block but decided that would be too dense for these airy drawings.

Finally I pulled up Electric Quilt 8 and started looking through the programs Block Library. Not only do they have a treasure trove of blocks, but cutting instructions can be printed out in any size you need.

In the category Contemporary Pieced blocks there is a sub-category, Prairie Style Blocks. The Prairie Style blocks had both the architectural interest and the airiness that echoed the bird fabric. I chose the block “Cross 7.”

My Prairie blocks are in 4 colorways that coordinate with the fussy cut bird blocks. I still working on the quilt, but I’m really pleased with my choice of the prairie style block as my alternate block for this project.