Margaret Miller offers a new perspective for quilt settings for traditional blocks. You'll find hundreds of ideas for combining simple but unexpected designs, easy piecing, and a bit of fabric savvy. Let's get those blocks out of your closet and play with different settings using ideas from Smashing Sets.

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Smashing Sets Exciting Ways to Arrange Quilt Blocks Author: Margaret J. Miller Pages: 96 Page size: 8 1/2" x 11" Publisher: C&T Publishing Item Code: 4L1960 Weight: 1.0 lb 20% off: $19.16 MSRP: $23.95

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New Settings for Traditional Blocks

Margaret Miller offers a new perspective for settings using traditional blocks. You'll find hundreds of ideas for combining simple but unexpected designs, easy piecing, and a bit of fabric savvy.

• Only straight line piecing is used! Quilts look complex but are based on simple design principles.
• 36 full color quilts, with layouts for making 16 of them.
• Step-by-step instructions and advice on fabric choices, plus lots of sample layouts to play with.
• Not just for sampler quilts! Techniques are applicable to any quilt that uses individual blocks.

"Get those blocks out of your closets and play with different settings using ideas from Smashing Sets. Margaret's clear illustrations and color photographs lead you through the process of 'reaching for the unexpected' to create spectacular quilts. Sampler quilts will never be the same again! Where did I stash my old blocks?"

—Bonnie Browning, Show Chairman for American Quilter's Society

"With the skills of a great teacher and quilt artist, Margaret leads the reader through the design process with ease and clarity. The practical instructions for making the sophisticated yet straightforward quilt designs will help quilters get past the constraints of traditional quiltmaking and venture into new territory. I can hardly wait to get started!"

—Marsha McCloskey, Quilt Designer, Teacher, and Author

Table of Contents:

Dedication	4	Repeat Design Elements	50
Acknowledgements	4	Border within a Border	54
Introduction	5	Fabric Choices	55
How to Use This Book	5	Offsetting Blocks and Other Elements to Create Movement	58
Supplies	6	Letting the Action Escape	59
Getting Started:		A Checklist	61
Goals and Definitions	8	The Piecing Process:
Acquiring Quilt Blocks to Work With	8	From Paper Design to Real Quilts	62
Preparation of Sampler or Friendship Blocks	9	Supplies	62
Bordering Each Block	9	Creating the Scale Drawing	63
Working to Scale with Colored-Paper Blanks	11	Creating Full-size Template	63
Working "From the Inside Out"	12	Using the Graph Paper Templates	65
Blocks as Squares	12	Sewing the Quilt Together	66
Blocks on Point	20	The Freezer Paper Technique: Variation on a Theme	67
Combining Straight and On-Point Blocks	21	Sewing Techniques	67
The Block Linking Network	24	Projects for You	68
The Block and Blank Approach—Some "Loosening Up" Exercises	25	Afterword	90
Positiong the Quilt Within the Perimeter—An Extension of the "Block and Blank" Approach	33	Appendices	91
Sashing Strips—Variations on a Theme: Another Area to Reach for the Unexpected	35	Appendix A—Sample Blocks to Work (Play) With	91
Design Details:		Appendix B—Sample Layouts	92
Tools of the Trade	38
Block Segments	38	Resources/Bibliography	93
The Basic Cuts	39	Index	94
Distorted Blocks	47	About the Author	95