A CLOUD OF QUILT PATTERNS: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PATTERN IN BLOG FORM UPDATES & ADDITIONS BY BARBARA BRACKMAN

Monday, March 27, 2017

Twist Patchwork as an Allover or Two-Block Design

I've always been fascinated by the quilt pattern seen
in this top from about 1900

Twist Patchwork or Twisted Rope

BlockBase #443 was first published in Caulfeild & Saward's English Needlework book



The complex pattern is based on an octagon with strips flying off in four directions.
A lapful of patchwork.

A version from about 1925-35

Edith Rica Bock's from the 1940s.
Arizona Quilt Project & the Quilt Index.

A recent romantic take from In The Beginning.
Garden Twist

Miniature by Sakae Yoshihara
Very impressive at this scale.
The pattern is not easy at any scale,
especially if you are following Caulfeild & Saward's instructions.



In the 1970s Michael James figured out a way to get the same
look with alternating blocks. This one has a different BlockBase number
1028.5

McCall's Quilting gives you a free pattern here:
http://www.mccallsquilting.com/patterns/details.html?idx=13782


From Bountiful Heirlooms Blog

Monday, March 20, 2017

Southern Moon

BlockBase #1495 Southern Moon
is another circle in a square quilt.


The pattern comes from the Laura Wheeler/Alice Brooks newspaper
syndicate of the 1930s

It's dramatic as a two-color quilt.

When it's set all over you could also look at it as two alternating blocks

A more complicated version.


Monday, March 13, 2017

Rings in a Square

Here's an absolutely fabulous quilt from the 1960s (?)
I saw it somewhere on the internet.

Rings in a square.

The closest I could come to a published pattern is
the bulls-eye variation from the Kansas City Star in 1943
but it has more seams. 


Or you could view it as four fans

BlockBase will give you templates for piecing these curved pieces.
If the design seems to ambitious there are simpler variations.

#1482
Fair Play
Quarter Turn
The Pig Pen
Wedding Ring


Fair Play and Mill Wheel


A variation of  #1482 Fair Play---sort of a curve.


Mill Wheel #1487 is good too
especially if you add some stripes.



An unfortunate collision between block pattern (#1487) and border.
I am thinking (just thinking) of doing a ring in a square.
No piecing in the border though.

Or more than one ring in a square.
Here's a pattern for a 6" variation, which would make a 12" block.
I imported Caroline's Fan from BlockBase to EQ7.
I erased A Lot of lines.
It looks do-able.

Print it out so the quarter block is 6".
Add seams to the pattern rings and other pattern parts.

Or applique every other ring to a large Drunkard's Path curve....
which is what I am thinking of doing.

Do a web search for
Bullseye Quilt
and see a lot of variations, mostly free cut.

Monday, March 6, 2017

Old Maid's Ramble With Geese

There aren't many patterns that are constructed as an X


This design of half-square triangles was popular about 1890-1920.

 BlockBase #2338 has arms of four flying geese extending out from the center point 

There are two ways to shade it.

The most common is with a dark and light contrast
but sometimes you see a dark, medium and light as in 2338b:
Vermont from the Nancy Page column in the 1930s.

Most of the time the geese are half dark & half light and very scrappy.

The Ladies Art Company called it Old Maid's Ramble about 1890

Set in a Zig Zag or Fence Rail set, from the West Virginia project
and the Quilt Index

A mid-century version 

Late 19th century

Perfect Pennsylvania? Palette 

This variation from the DAR Museum has 6 sets
of geese flying out from the center point.





From the Connecticut Project
Same pattern, different shading. If you put a little chrome orange in
the outermost geese you get a pinwheel secondary pattern.

More geese, more numbers 

From a sampler date-inscribed 1851


And sometimes the geese are flying into the center.

It may be easier to stitch the geese than count them.