There are only so many shapes that you can use in quilting. Once you’ve used them all, what is there to do? Now we get to play with how we place them. Squares are just squares until we put them on their points, then they are diamonds. With the use of color, we can place squares to form diagonal lines and X’s or crosses. Sometimes we can create shapes from their placement that can be more interesting than the original block you created. Check out what some of our longarm machine renters did with diagonals and squares on point.

Trina's Diagonals

This is Trina when she first started quilting with us a few months ago. This lap quilt is just a four patch with two smaller four patches within it. But the use of neutral fabrics in contrast with the bold primary colors in the smaller four patches gives you the diagonal lines. I really like the occasional bolder neutral. It adds to the scrappy feel of the quilt.

She quilted this with the Feather Design Board we have available for renters. I remember we discussed quilting orange peels because of the print in her border. But structured designs like that, especially when quilted from the back of a machine like with a design board, would not line up with her piecing. We concluded it would look odd because of that. I like the all over feather effect. It adds a lot of movement to the top and doesn’t fight for attention with the piecing.

Bonnie's On Point

This one is both diagonal and on point. Some of you might feel this quilt is familiar, but maybe not be able to place it exactly. Bonnie created this Bonnie Hunter design, but felt that some of the detailed piecing was a little too much for her. She chose to simplify it slightly. Bonnie Hunter’s original design, Ringo Lake, had a pieced square where our Bonnie placed a solid one. I think it turned out lovely.

Can you see the subtle diagonal pattern from her placement of the two tones of neutral that she used in her blocks? It’s there, but doesn’t scream at you. Bonnie completed this quilt with a paper pantograph called Airborne. It looks like wind blowing across the surface.

Dennis's Diagonals

When Dennis first found us and started to quilt with us, he had already pieced a small stack of quilts. This is the last of those. This is a very scrappy king-sized quilt. He managed to maintain the same fabric or at least the same color of squares in the same order to give us that diagonal stripe effect. The placement of the lighter blue fabric as well as lighter green also gives us a subtle design in the middle. Like a reflection or shine. I don’t know what to call it, but I like it. He quilted this with the Seamless Pantograph. It’s a loopy meander that adds a little texture and quilting without additional design. It works well with a scrappy quilt like this.

Polly's On Point

Polly also chose to quilt her quilt with Seamless. This pretty blue quilt is just squares on point in a double frame. I really like how evenly she placed the white squares with the different tones of light blue. The darker border also gives a nice frame to differentiate the pieced interior to the light blue outer border.

Just because a quilt is made up of squares, doesn’t mean it is simple and plain. Tipping the square on point or just setting it diagonally with others of like or different colors, can really spice things up. What else have you done with diagonals on point?