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Patchwork Quilt
Patchwork Quilting - Finding The idea Away from each other!What's this problem wreaking havoc inside the patchwork quilting world? Don't worry, its not hampering the masses from making millions of quilts per year... BUT it is hampering the ones that want to make their own UNIQUE quilts!
It's just the inability to design their own patchwork quilting blocks! So we are going to start at the beginning and figuratively "pick some blocks apart"! By understanding how a block was originally designed and made YOU can change it to make it your own personal! In ANY size YOU want so that it is so that OUR quilt is the size YOU want it to be, not what a pattern says it should be! Now I know, patterns allow it to be easy, I myself published a line of patchwork quilting patterns for over 25 years, but once you can test any quilt block, decide what are the bare bones of the block... then the gloves come off and YOU are in charge!
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 fun to talk a little about how one analyzes patchwork quilting by in a sense picking them apart. These books are both GREAT resource tools by any quilter and this article will start you off on obtaining the most out of them both.
Initially you must realize that there are major divisions in patchwork quilting blocks that just about any good quilt-making book or class will teach you. The first is patchwork quilting that is called one patch. Then you use only one template for the whole quilt! That one shape will usually be a square, triangle, or a hexagon. According to fabric coloration's and placement you can end up with an overall design. Suppose 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 which are quilts made up of many duplicate blocks each block can be analyzed, broken down, into it's main elements so that you can determine 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 as two blocks across by two blocks down.
A classic demonstration 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 made up of simple triangles, that the remaining small squares are four patches of their own! This quilt represents all sorts of looks depending on fabric choices, and also placement of color.
Next we have the very classic Nine Patch. The patchwork quilting block is 3 divisions across x 3 divisions down. There are many them! One that you are sure to recognize, and is simple to piece, is a "Double Irish Chain".
Because you will see you have the nine patchwork quilting grid, and in alternating squares you have smaller, mini 9 patches. When these blocks are set together you have a quilt that can take 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 possibly can make whatever size quilt you like. And since YOU made the pattern yourself, YOU control the length of each block, and hence the size of the overall quilt! Notice in this example what sort of 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 the Five Patch patchwork quilting block the truth is that these have five blocks across x five blocks down. Your skill with these blocks is almost limitless, but simply an example is "Sister's Choice".
Visit my how do people see how a b/w study of the block, changing where you put the values of colors really makes a huge difference in how a block "reads"!
Lastly, lets consider 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 selection of fabrics the quilt can be very traditional, or it can take on a more modern look!
This is only a glimpse at just some of many, MANY patchwork quilting patterns available to you in these block grids. Perhaps we will take a look in depth at them in the very near future! Be sure to check out my Patchwork Quilting website for further to come! |