Marcia_PA

I want to use what will be a 12-inch finished (leftover from another project) school house block in the center of a lap quilt or wall hanging for a friend. I don't want to take away from the center block, but I don't know what kind of blocks to surround it with. (I don't want to make more school houses!) I want it to finish at about 36 inches. If I want it larger, I'll add a border.

I started out thinking of using four patch blocks, in muslin plus blue & green scrap fabrics. Then I thought about an Irish chain pattern, but I don't know how I'd handle that--guess I would have to draw it out.

Any other thoughts on what blocks to use? The house block is made with muslin and light & medium greens.

Thank you for any suggestions.

PaperPrincess

I would do a search on Google Images for medallion quilts for ideas.
To keep everything in scale, I would tend toward several small pieced borders, rather than one large one: pinwheels, 4 or 9 patches HSTs arranged in a sawtooth design etc.

nativetexan

You could make it into a sixteen inch block with sashings and make a pillow cover with it. zipper added to the backing fabric and you are done.

Tartan

oWhat about gold star blocks surrounding the school house. I am thinking if the Wacky Star blocks from Quiltville free patterns in a nice rich gold. I used to love getting a gold star on my school work.

tapper

What about something like the one in the following link. Since you don't want to do more SH blocks, perhaps you couls do goldstars(as suggested by Tartan) for the 4 corners.

http://blog.shopmartingale.com/wp-co...eir-Quilts.jpg

Marcia_PA

That's a good idea. I hadn't thought about looking at medallion quilts. Thanks!

I do have just one other school house orphan block. I might make that one into a pillow, nativetexan. That would mean one less orphan.

Gold fabric stars would go well with the green house fabric. I like the red school house wall hanging, too. I always liked sawtooth star blocks. Thanks for the ideas, Tartan and Tapper.