My 6 Basic Elements of Quilting

Every now and then someone will look at me and say, "Gerri, I love your quilt designs but they just look too hard for me"! I always laugh when I hear that because guess what? At the core of all of my designs are the same 6 BASIC quilting elements! If you can learn these 6 elements of quilting I promise you can make any and all of my quilts!

So, what are the 6 basic elements?

1. Half Square Triangle

2. Flying Geese

3. Quick Angled Rectangle 

4. Square-in-a-Square

5. Snowball Block

6. Triangle-in-a-Square

That's it! If you have been quilting for a long time you likely are very familiar with these elements of block construction. If you are new to quilting and Flying Geese are just birds in the sky to you, don't worry! I have a series of video tutorials to get you up and sewing in no time!

Can you spot which basic elements we use to make my Blossom Pattern? It's made with square-in-a-square, quick angled rectangles, and elongated flying geese. Even though, at first glance, a quilt like Blossom may look a bit complicated with all those flowers, when you strip it down it always comes back to the basics.

Windmills is a popular quilt pattern because it is Pre-cut friendly! You can use a Rollie Pollie to make this lovely quilt. Do you see the basic element we use here?

It's angled rectangles again! Let's do one more...

Swirl uses half square triangles!! It really is as simple as that. Now that you can identify the simple elements in seemingly complex quilts, let's get to the sewing table and practice these techniques! Click the links below to visit my Videos page for video tutorials where I walk you through the basic elements step by step.

1. Half Square Triangle

2. Quick Angled Rectangle 

3. Flying Geese

4. Square-in-a-Square

5. Snowball Block

6. I have a brand new tool coming VERY soon to help you with the Triangle-in-a-Square element so stay tuned for a tutorial coming soon. I can hardly wait to show you!

Click HERE for a link to all videos!

I hope these tutorials are helpful and that you master the 6 basic elements in no time!