Resizing Quilt Block Using a Grid

Atlas Star Quilt Block
Designed by Gina Perkes

    My local quilt guild, Piecemakers of Idaho, started a BOM challenge in January. Most of the blocks were 12" blocks but one of the blocks was 16". I really didn't want this block this big and wanted to keep it near the 12" block size. I thought it would be a good idea to share with you how I resized this block without using a copy machine. 

    The block we will be working with is called Atlas Star and was designed by Gina Perkes of The Copper Needle. This block was part of a quilt challenege that the National Quilt Circle held in 2018. You can obtain the block and a color sheet at their website here.

Flying Geese

Half-Square
Triangle (HST)

When resizing a block, it's important to look at how the block is put together. When I look at this block, I see that there are several half-square triangles, flying geese, and a large square block in the center. 

When I look at the whole block it is easy to see that I could lay a grid over the block and all the seams would be on the gridlines. By doing this, I can see that the grid could be a 4 or 8 grid block. When I first looked at this block, broke it out into the bigger 8-grid before I determined that a 4-grid would work.  

By using the 8-grid I could see easily each of the elements, whereas the 4-grid combines some of the elements in the center block. Once I determined the block is either a 4 or 8-grid I looked at the cutting chart to see what size the center is since it is a square.

Fabric F is the center. Remember that the 4.5" is the cut size and not the finished size. So in order to determine the finished size, remove the half-inch seam allowance; giving a 4" square. To determine how big each grid block is using the 8-grid, it is easy to see that each grid would be 2". There are 8 grid block and if each is 2" the whole block equals 16".  If I knew the finished size was 16" to begin with, then I could have simply divided 16 by 8 grid blocks. However, the pattern did not state the finished size. 

With that being said, if I wanted to figure out what size each grid block would be if I wanted a 12" block, I could simply divide 12 by 8. I have to admit, I do not always have a calculator in my sewing room. It is something I should get. But let's continue instead with the grid. Since 8 does not go into 12 easily, I transformed the 8-grid into a 4-grid because then I knew each of the 4-grid blocks is 3" and can easily divide that by 2 to get size for each grid block in the 8-grid. This is 1.5". Remember, this is the finished size. Using the original cut guide, remove the seam allowance before changing the cut size to the new cut size and then add the seam allowance back.  Here is the new guide.

Will this work on sizes of grid blocks?

    Although you could resize all grid blocks this way, not all grid blocks sizes lend themselves to a good cutting size. For example, if I wanted to increase a 10" block that fits a 5-grid that would not be easy. After all, 5 into 12 leaves 2-2/5" or 2.4". I don't want to cut that. In this case, you would have a couple of choices. This might be where a copier comes in handy. Simply load the 10" quilt block and copy it at 120%.

Then cut out each of the blocks, but remember this is finished size so you need to add your seam allowances. Alternatively, you could just add a border around the block to get it to the 12". 

I hope this helps you resize those blocks.