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  How to set a block crooked I've made many crooked quilts in the past, close to a dozen I think. I just enjoy the free motion of squares that seem to float in a quilt, rather than being lined up straight and stiff. (I guess that's the rebellious part of my quilting background.) Granted not all blocks would look good all crooked or wonky, but you never know until you try, which is what I've done. |
Hearts wasn't my first, but it certainly is one of my favorite blocks to set crooked. And it's such an easy one to do too. If you don't have a heart block made, go back to Hearts and make one to play with, or two or three.
While you are making those blocks, whatever they might be, save your long scraps. (I save all my scraps, 2 1/2 inches and bigger.) If you made 6 1/2 inch blocks, cut strips in various widths from 1 1/2 inches to 3 inches. If you've made larger blocks, say 12 1/2 inch blocks, cut strips from 2 to 3 1/2 inches.
Now add strips to each side of a block, making sure that the background color, and the color strip you are adding are the same. If your background is red, then you want to be adding red strips. It doesn't matter if the strips are different widths, you just want them to be as long as the length and/or width of the block. Press each strip towards to block after you add it. Keep adding until you have the block as large as want it. Don't cut it yet, wait till you have a lot finished.
Now, if I was making this quilt I would make a dozen or so of each block, red hearts and green hearts. Then I would trim them to make them crooked squares. I would use a smaller ruler than my squares are, which in this case would be about 10 1/2 inches after I've added the extra strips to the finished 6 1/2 inch heart blocks. (Some might be larger, some smaller, so be prepared to add more strips to those smaller squares if needed.) I'm showing you the first heart I diagramed which had a smaller strip on the bottom. And so you can see what I'm doing, I've made a ruler template to square my blocks. (Use your imitation please.)
You can see that my ruler didn't cover the red heart block, so I had to add another strip on the bottom. Once I did that, I cut the extra pieces off each side and just like that, I had a crooked heart. One thing you will have to know about your crooked hearts, their sides are now stretchy because they are on the bias, which is the most stretchy part of the fabric. So handle those crooked hearts carefully until you get them sewn together.
Let's move on to sailboats, sailing isn't always smooth going. Let's make some crooked waters. The first sailboat is just a finished block, whatever size doesn't matter. You can see on the boat next to it that I've added more sky strips to the top.
At this point I realized I did not want sky on the bottom of the boat, I needed water strips. But I didn't want them straight, I wanted them slightly wonky or crooked. And because my water fabric had a directional design that was waves in horizonal lines, I needed some going uphill and some going downhill. But before I added those, I wanted to add more "sky" on the left and right. I wasn't sure how crooked I wanted this sailboat to be and that depended on the waves. So I got out my trusty ruler to see where I needed to add what. This helped me decide where to add what.
That helped a lot. I added two more side strips and then just a little bit more water on the right side. I liked the way that block finished, although I think I would have liked a little bit more water and less sky. The second sailboat showed that better.
So it's not hard to make a crooked block, just add some crooked sides to it. BUT remember, crooked pieces mean bias edges, so don't be s t r e t c h i n g them to make them fit in place, because they will shrink back to their normal shape and make a pucker in your quilt. Handle bias edges carefully and they won't give you any trouble. (Bias can be your friend if you are nice to it.)
Here are a few other quilts I have made that are crooked:
Crooked Square, this one for kids
Another Crooked Squares, this one was for signatures of Retreat atendees, and is VERY special to me.
This was a pattern I "invented" which just happened to be Crooked Stars. It was a hit. I will add it to the BOM page in 2026.
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