Quilt Power Layout

I have just discovered a handy way of laying out quilt blocks that have multiple pieces. I am working on a quilt with 46 blocks that end up as stars after the blocks are placed together. There are literallly hundreds of pieces. When we scrapbook we do what is called a "Power Layout". This is a way to pre-layout your photos on a spread adding the papers and stickers you plan to use. Creative Memories has plastic guides that are made to hold a 12x12 page. I realized that I can use these same guides and they will fit inside the 2" deep boxes that many of us use. They only thing with using something different that the box that was made to hold these guides is that if you drop the true power layout box and guides, there will be no shifting. Everything will stay right where you put it.


Check out what I have done here. It's works extremely well in the way it would for a scrapbooker. You can stack these and then just work out of the box as you are sewing along. I can't wait to finish laying out my blocks so I can start sewing with confidence that I am picking up the correct pieces and sewing them together as they should be. Hopefully it will eleviate any mistakes in grabbing the wrong pieces. We'll see. But so far, so good.




1. This is one plastic 12x12 guide


2. Here I have layed out the center 9 patch edge to edge.

3. now I have added the outer corner blocks and rectangles.

4. Now I have added the dark square that is going to actually form a triangular end to the rectangle. So I am laying it down right sides together.

5. Now you can see where I added the square on the rectangle right sides together. I did this on all four sides.

6. Now I will lay another plastic guide on top of the block I have just finished laying out.

7. The guide is now sitting nice and flat on top of the other block

8. Now I start to lay out my next block on the second guide. You just keep layering until you have layed out each block you need or until you run out of guides.

The best thing about this system is that these guides can fit into the black box they go in perfectly. There is no room for movement. So if you drop the box, or it falls off the table, etc, everything stays in tact. Originally I thought that you could use these guides in the plastic boxes we tend to store our finished blocks in, but the guides are about 1" smaller than those particular boxes. So that leaves room for movement which will cause shifting.

The Power Layout box and guides are available from Creative Memories for $25. Now of course this particular one (size) is discontinued as we are waiting on the updated size. But there are many out there that I can hunt up from other consultants. These kits include box and 15 guides for $25. Additional guides are also available for $12 for 15 guides. These things will last a lifetime.