"Mosaic" yet again - Bigger Bricks!

I finally finished this top! I made it back in 2021 - and while this isn’t a record at all in old tops, it is one of the older tops I have had sitting around. I also have a basket of bricks like these only one size larger.

 
 

The bricks that I used for making this quilt are 3”x5.5”. The formula for a brick is a number of inches along one side and then the other direction is 2x that number minus 0.5”. That means bricks by this definition are 1.5”x2.5”, 2”x3.5”, 2.5”x4.5”, and now, 3”x5.5”.

I have made this design in now 4 sizes. Check them out below.

From left to right, the sizes of the bricks are 3”x5.5”, 2.5”x4.5”, 2”x3.5” and 1.5”x2.5”. Do you have a preference?

I am quite pleased with this version of this design. I ended up liking this one much better than I thought I would. I tend to like smaller, more detailed designs, but this one surprised me!

I have the bricks cut out to do it in one size larger -- they are 3.5”x6.5” and are all in a shoebox right near my Juki 8700. And there they sit. :)

Seeing how nice this larger one turned out may inspire me to pick out these pieces from that box and get going on it.

Once they are this size, however, the tops are much faster to put together than the smaller ones. Naturally.

It’s rather a simple design. I drew this out for my first one I did and it works for this as well - it’s just that the bricks are larger! The edge pieces on this one that are half of a brick would be cut 3”x3”. You use those on every other row to create the “half block drop” effect.

I literally just printed this out and put it by my sewing machine when I worked so I could look at it.

One thing to remember about this is - make sure if you want that strong white design to stand out - choose colorful and saturated colored bricks that are positioned right next to the white ones.

This helps the design stand out. If you have fabrics with lighter backgrounds, use them more in the center of a bunch of bricks but not next to the white. This will still allow the design to shine. (There is enough room in this layout to make some secondary designs if you wanted to place a yellow in the center brick, etc.)

This top is put together row by row, so you can easily just stop adding to it when it is enough.

This particular top was not completely symmetrical because if I had gone down one more half row of x’s, it would have been too long for my purposes. But cutting it down to only 3 x’s seemed too short. If you don’t know what I mean, take a look at the top picture and see if you can find the x’s. Count how many you see going down the quilt. There are 3 and a half.

I also did make the one using the 2”x3.5” bricks not quite as symmetrical as I would have hoped. But that’s just how it goes sometimes.

Here’s the quilt roll -

 
 

With a quilt with pieces this size, making an “I Spy” quilt out of novelty children’s fabrics could be totally fun!

And that’s it. This is not a new design for those of you who have followed me. Besides the four shown above, I’ve also made one called Mosaic Variation and Mosaic in Reverse. Let me show you those two.

Both of these were made with 2” strips. I will probably do something similar with my many, many bags of 2.5” strips. :)

I admit, the one in reverse was awful to make. I actually hated it. I thought it would be very ugly when finished, but surprise, surprise, it was fine. That was a case where up close - the fabrics are very boring, but the end quilt top turned out to be very nice.

Thanks so much once again for coming along with me on this journey.

If you feel like you need a pattern for this one - just use the one I made for the smaller size but make the bricks this larger size. That original pattern is found here.

Have a great day wherever you are reading this.

Becky Petersen6 Comments