Patchwork Quilting - Finding This Away from each other!
WHAT is this problem wreaking havoc in the patchwork quilting world? Don't get worried, it isn't hampering the masses from making millions of quilts per year... BUT it is hampering those that want to make their own UNIQUE quilts!
It is simply not being able to design their own unique patchwork quilting blocks! Therefore 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 really 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 ought to be! Now I know, patterns make it easy, I myself published a line of patchwork quilting patterns for over 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 charge!
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 should be aware of 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 employ only one template for the entire 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 composed of only one size hexagon!
When you get into patchwork quilting which can be quilts made up of many duplicate blocks each block can be analyzed, broken down, into it's main elements to be able to figure out what each section is made up of and how you might either totally duplicate it, or, if you're adventurous, change the elements that you don't quite like as well to replace all of 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! Of course if you don't want to visit the bother her book categorizes them for you!
The first of these block divisions is known as a four patch. Why it's not called a two patch is beyond me, but like the nine patch they count all of the squares rather than the quantity of rows and columns. So a four patch quilt block could 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 will even notice that while two of them are made up of simple triangles, that the remaining small squares are four patches of their very own! This quilt represents all sorts of looks depending on fabric choices, and also keeping of color.
Next we have the very classic Nine Patch. The patchwork quilting block is 3 divisions across x 3 divisions down. There are lots of them! One that you are sure to recognize, and is easy to piece, is a "Double Irish Chain".
As you will see you have the nine patchwork quilting grid, as well as in alternating squares you have smaller, mini 9 patches. When these blocks are positioned together you have a quilt that can on an overall pattern. In cases like this they actually constitute a bigger nine patch of their own and a cute baby quilt. By adding more blocks together you can make whatever size quilt you like. And since YOU made the pattern yourself, YOU control the size of each block, and hence how big the overall quilt! Notice within 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 the Five Patch patchwork quilting block the truth is that these have five blocks across x five blocks down. You skill with these blocks is almost limitless, but just one example is "Sister's Choice".
Visit my website to find out how a b/w study of the block, changing where you put the values of colours really is really a huge difference in how a block "reads"!
Lastly, lets look at 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 very traditional, or it can take over a more modern look!
This is simply a glimpse at just some of many, MANY patchwork quilting patterns accessible to you in these block grids. Perhaps we are going to take a look in depth at them in the very near future! Make sure you check out my Patchwork Quilting website for further to come!