Patchwork Quilting; Picking it APART!

With two patchwork quilting books new to the market, Gwen Marston’s ”Liberated Quiltmaking II” and Jinny Beyer’s “The Quilter’s Album of Patchwork Patterns:4050 Pieced Blocks for Quilters” I thought it a good time to talk a little about how one analyzes patchwork quilting by in a sense picking them apart.   Knowing how to do that makes it easier to begin to make your own patterns rather than always relying on purchased ones.  Now I know, patterns make it easy, I myself published a line of patchwork quilting patterns for over 25 years, but once you can look at any quilt block, decide what are the bare bones of the block… then the gloves come off and YOU are in charge!

There are major divisions that just about any good quiltmaking book or class will teach you.  The first is patchwork quilting that is called one patch.  That is when you use only one template for the entire quilt!  That one shape will usually be a square, triangle, or a hexagon.  Depending on fabric colorations and placement you can end up with an overall design.  Think of the pattern “Grandmother’s Flower Garden” and you have pictured a one patch quilt made up of only one size hexagon!

When you get into patchwork quilting that are quilts made up of many duplicate blocks each block can be analyzed, broken down, into it’s main elements so that you can figure out what each section is made up of and how you might either totally duplicate it, or, if you are adventurous, change out the elements that you don’t quite like as well to replace them with your own!  After all that is how patchwork quilting block patterns came to be!  After all there are 4,050 or them named in Jinny’s new book!  Of course if you don’t want to go to the bother her book categorizes them for you!

The first of these block divisions is known as a four patch.  Why it isn’t called a two patch is beyond me, but like the nine patch they count all the squares rather than the number of rows and columns.  So a four patch quilt block can be broken down like this:  

Next we have the very classic Nine Pach:  

Moving on to the Five Patch patchwork quilting block you see that these have 5 blocks across x 5  blocks down:  

and last, but now least, because you can make all sorts of blocks out of them, is the Seven Patch Block:  

By analyzing a quilt block in patchwork quilting that you like you can then, just by figuring out which category it falls into, determine how it is made, and hence where it can be changed to fit YOUR tastes, your needs, and your sizes.  Please feel free to stop by My Patchwork Quilting Website to delve farther into this, and many more, patchwork quilting ideas!  We would love to have YOU!

Patchwork Quilting;Through Time and Space

American patchwork quilting has a rich and varied history.  Born out of necessity it has grown to where  it is becoming an accepted art form.  Patchwork quilting now has gone from gracing our beds to adorning our walls.

Sheer necessity brought us our traditional patchwork quilts.  There are literally thousands of patchwork quilting patterns of record.  You may also find the same pattern with different names as you travel around our country because patchwork quilting patterns did exactly that also.  Having been seen in a home in New England the idea may have traveled west with its maker and once in its new location it may have taken on a new name that better suited its maker.  Another reason for changing names is sheer superstition.   For instance, the patchwork quilting pattern called Wandering Foot was changed to Turkey Tracks simply because it was thought that if a male slept under a quilt of Wandering Foot blocks that man would wander!  Imagine how that made moms and wives feel! Change the name, and the curse was supposedly lifted!  It may seem silly, but this is true historical fact and I guess stuck out on a prairie all by oneself one might start to believe it!

Travel forward a few hundred years and you have women of all walks of life attending patchwork quilting shows, classes, guild meetings.  You still have your traditional quilters but you also have those that have broken the mold, pushed the envelope, and making art quilts!  Patchwork quilting shown in galleries, museums, and showcased wherever art is exhibited, even the Renwick Gallery associated with our Smithsonian American Art History Museum in Washington DC!  Look around and you will even find more men than ever involved in patchwork quilting!  They tend to bring a fresh and unique eye to the art.

Making this journey through time has been a varied one for quilters.  We have gone from sewing out of necessity, using the salvageable parts of worn out clothes for scrap quilts to buying state of the art quilting sewing machines that do everything but finish the quilt and make the bed for you.  But while the process has gotten much easier nowadays you will find that quilters themselves have not really changed much.  They still tend to be frugal folk, hording every last scrap and then trading them for more.  Quilters are giving, sharing people.  They tend to point out the flaws in themselves and their quilts before reveling in the compliments they bring.  They love to share experiences, techniques, and fun.  They are people you will want to know better.

Take time out this month and check to see if there might be a patchwork quilting event in your area.  You will be amazed at all the styles, sizes, techniques, and products to be had!  But beware!  Quilting while it has evolved over time can still be one thing; addictive!  It has been known to take hold of even the staunchest non-sewer and hold on for a lifetime!