All images, text and other content © 2010 Piece By Number
Below are just a very few of the possibilities offered by the Big Sister, Little Sister and Big Brother, Little Brother block designs. I haven't even started playing with sashings and on-point sets! Experiment and see what you come up with.
For scrap quilts or those with big busy prints, keep things simple by NOT separately piecing the optional diagonally-divided rectangle pieces. The additional diagonals add lots of movement and more interesting layout possibilities, but take care not to let things get out of control!
NOTE: Many of the designs below use a somewhat different placement of the colors in the alternate blocks. In other words, although the blocks may look identical at first glance, study any design carefully before you start cutting fabric and sewing blocks for a whole quilt!
Sweet Sisters
Light, bright spring colors make this a very sweet quilt. Try it in 1930's repro prints, too.
Butterfly Sisters
A simple set. Do you see the peach, aqua and turquoise "butterfly" shapes between the "sisters"?
Circus Family
Same Big Sister, Little Brother
block above, but a different set
with brighter colors.
Brothers of the Southwest
Soft, muted colors keep this layout from becoming overwhelming.
Country Brothers
For a scrap quilt, use a simple layout without the optional diagonally-divided rectangles.
Big Sister, Little Brother
Block combines large-scale "sister" and small-scale "brother" sub-blocks
(pattern not available on-line)
Three Sisters
Note addition of 3rd smallest scale "sister" in this block
(pattern not available on-line)
By the way, there's no particular reason the Sisters block is based on "Broken Dishes" (which might actually be better for brothers!), or the Brothers block is based on "Square and Triangle". So choose your blocks based on your preferences, not necessarily their names. Or make a quilt based on your own family’s brothers and sisters!
Click here for Big Sister, Little Sister block.