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Patchwork Quilting - Choosing The idea Aside!


WHAT is this issue wreaking havoc within the patchwork quilting world? Don't worry, it isn't hampering the masses from making millions of quilts a year... BUT it is hampering those who want to make their own quilts!

It is simply not being able to design their own unique patchwork quilting blocks! So we are going to start in the beginning and figuratively "pick some blocks apart"! By focusing on how a block was originally designed and made YOU can change it to make it your OWN! In ANY size You would like it to be to ensure that OUR quilt is the size YOU want it to be, not what a pattern says it should be! Now I know, patterns make it easy, I myself published a type of patchwork quilting patterns for upwards of 25 years, but once you can try any quilt block, decide which are the bare bones of the block... then the gloves come off and you're simply in control!

With two patchwork quilting books a new comer 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 exactly one analyzes patchwork quilting by in a sense picking them apart. These two books are both GREAT resource tools by any quilter and this article will start you off on getting the most out of both of them.

First you must realize that there are major divisions in patchwork quilting blocks that almost any good quilt-making book or class will teach you. The very first is patchwork quilting that is called one patch. That is when you use only one template for the whole quilt! That one shape will most likely be a square, triangle, or a hexagon. Depending on fabric coloration's and placement you are able to end up with a general design. Think of the pattern "Grandmother's Flower Garden" and you've got pictured a one patch quilt made up of only one size hexagon!

When you get into patchwork quilting which can be quilts composed of many duplicate blocks each block could 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're adventurous, change out the elements that you don't that can compare with as well to replace them with your own! I believe that now is how patchwork quilting block patterns came to be! After all there are 4,050 or them named in Jinny's new book! Obviously if you don't want to visit the bother her book categorizes them for you!

The first of these block divisions can be described as four patch. Why it's not called a two patch is beyond me, but like the nine patch they count all the squares instead of the number of rows and columns. So a four patch quilt block can be broken as two blocks across by two blocks down.

A classic illustration of a four patch quilt block is "Jacobs Ladder". You can see that the overall block is made up of four equal sized smaller squares, and you can even see that while a couple of them are comprised of simple triangles, the remaining small squares are four patches of their very own! This quilt represents all sorts of looks based on fabric choices, and also keeping of color.

Next we have the classic Nine Patch. The patchwork quilting block is 3 divisions across x 3 divisions down. There are literally hundreds of them! One that you're certain to recognize, and is simple to piece, is a "Double Irish Chain".

As you will help you have the nine patchwork quilting grid, and in alternating squares you have smaller, mini 9 patches. When these blocks are positioned together you have a quilt that takes on an overall pattern. In this case they actually make up a bigger nine patch that belongs to them and a cute baby quilt. By adding more blocks together you may make whatever size quilt you like. And since You have made the pattern yourself, YOU control how big each block, and hence how big the overall quilt! Notice in this example the way the white appears as "holes". The Amish might substitute the white for black which will make the green really POP! It's fun to experiment!

Moving on to 5 Patch patchwork quilting block you see that these have five blocks across x five blocks down. What you can do with these blocks is practically limitless, but just one of these is "Sister's Choice".

Visit my website to find out how a b/w study with the block, changing where you put the values of colors really makes a huge difference in how the block "reads"!

Lastly, lets discuss Seven Patch patchwork quilting Blocks: each block is made up of seven equal divisions both across and down. The very traditional Bears Claw is a fine example.
By mere collection of fabrics the quilt can be extremely traditional, or it can take on a more modern look!

This is simply a glimpse at just a FEW of many, MANY patchwork quilting patterns accessible to you in these block grids. Perhaps we are going to take a peek in depth at them in the very close to future! Be sure to check out my Patchwork Quilting website to get more to come!









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