Star in a Broken Wheel.

Today's free quilt pattern is Star in a Broken Wheel. Broken Wheel is a traditional pattern that I've always liked. When I drafted it to 12", it seemed a little empty, so I added a Sawtooth Star in the center, making it a Star in a Broken Wheel.

Today's topic is Getting Stuck. Everybody has their favorite parts of quiltmaking. Mine is drafting and sewing. I don't mind cutting and I like quilting, whether by machine or hand. But the part of quiltmaking that is the most trouble for me is choosing a quilt design and marking the quilt. I have dozens of unfinished projects that all stall when it comes to quilting. I'm trying to finish these UFO's, so I've got lots of quilt marking to do.

My current project is a streak of lightning, strippy quilt using 7 1/2" Ohio Stars. The blocks were given to me by members of the Capitol City Quilt Guild as a thank you for being their 20th president. I received the bocks in 2005, so 3 years in my UFO pile is not too bad. I set the blocks with triangles to make 7 strips. Then I put them aside to piece a quilt top for my friend and colleague at the MSU Museum, Lynne Swanson. It is a Center Diamond with Flying Geese (Lynne's favorite pattern) border. It was a fun project to draft and sew, but I think the real reason I did it was to avoid the next steps in my president's quilt. In 2009 the guild is having a quilt show and they want to display all the president's quilt for our 25th anniversary so I'm going back to that project.

How do you get past a block? For me, I sat down on Saturday with a pile of books with quilting patterns in them. I'm going to machine quilt it and I know I'm going to quilt the stars by stitch in the ditch. The hard part is the streak of lightning triangles. I always have an image in my mind of what I want, but my skills in drafting quilting designs is very limited and rarely measures up to my imagination. For this quilt I was thinking of a flowing feathered plume. The problem is a streak of lightning is really rectangles set perpendicular to each other. So to the books. I finally found a pattern I liked that almost fit in Sue Nickels and Pat Holly's Amish Patterns For Machine Quilting (Dover Needlework Series). The pattern is an arched plume with a tulip at one end. The pattern was not as long as I needed so I spent much of Sunday adding a pair of feathers to each end to get the length I wanted. To make sure the pattern was the right size I began sewing some of the strips together. The pattern fits.

Now I have a pattern I like and the next step is marking the top. When I machine quilt, I divide my quilt into units, quilt them and then put them together. This means I have to mark the top after it's basted to the batting and backing. So, I need a stencil. Pepper Cory taught me to cut stencils, so this afternoon, I'll be transferring the design to plastic and carving the grooves for my marking pencil. Once I get my first strip marked and quilted, I'm hoping I'll be unstuck. When the quilt is done I'll post a picture.

The Party Basket

Today's free quilt pattern is the Party Basket. It is an original block that I designed. I love basket patterns, but most of the traditional baskets look best on point and I wanted to make a basket for a 12" block. I also wanted to have the basket full without using applique. That's how I came up with this pattern.

Today's topic, Time To Quilt.
I work Tuesdays-Fridays. Everyday, while at work I think of all the quilting I can do when I get home. The day ends, I ride my bike 4 miles home, cook dinner, wash dishes and watch TV. No quilting. On Fridays I think of three days off and all the quilting I'll get done. Saturday mornings Tom (my husband) asks what do you want to do today. My answer is always the same, "Whatever you want, but if you don't have any ideas I'll sew all day." Last Saturday we walked Boomer, got groceries, then went to Big Rapids and rode bikes on the Rails to Trails path. We rode 26 miles! My longest ride so far. I got home about 6:30, scrounged leftovers for dinner, did dishes and watched TV. On Sunday, I spent about three hours re-illustrating the Party Basket pattern. The original illustrations were done by hand, but now that they're being published on the web, the illustrations had to be drawn on the computer. I did a little sewing. My current project is a Center Diamond quilt with Flying Geese borders. The Center Diamond is done, and I pieced about 50 of the 120 Flying Geese units. This morning I helped my daughter get ready for class. She's taking classes at the local community college and has a cold, so was a little slow to start. Then I washed dishes (my dishwasher has been broke for about 5 weeks and the new one is coming today!). I vacuumed the kitchen floor, so the dishwasher installers don't have to sit in dirt and while the vacuum was out, did the living room, dining room and other miscellaneous places Boomer has been. It was fairly cool so I weeded half of a garden bed with the help of Boomer. I pull two weeds and he drops his ball in my weed bucket. I throw the ball and it goes on this way until one of us is tired. I usually poop out first, as I did this morning. Now it's 9:45 and I'm ready to sew, but I want to get my Blog done.

Now the story of my days is not very exciting, but I was thinking of all the little things (housework, errands) and big things (husbands, kids, pets) that distract me from what I really want to do QUILT!

How do you find time to quilt? Do you squeeze it in anywhere you can? Sew a little everyday? Is it a priority that comes before more mundane chores? Do you take handwork with you? My fantasy is to have a fabulous sewing room (mine's not bad), a brand new Bernina (mine's 12 years old), a great fabric stash (done) and unlimited time to work (not anytime soon). I don't know if this will ever come true, but I feel lucky to have found a hobby that has captured my interest for 34 years.

Time to go, I get to quilt until the dishwasher is delivered!

The Anvil

Today's free quilt pattern is The Anvil.

The topic of today's blog is the naming of quilt patterns. The names given to quilt block patterns are not as old or as definitive as some quilters think. The first named pattern I know of was the hexagon, from Godey's Ladies Book, 1835. It was rare in women's magazines to find patterns for quiltmaking until the 1890s. At that time the Ladies Art Company began publishing and naming patterns. Connie Chunn is a quilt historian who has done extensive research on the Ladies Art Company and lucky for us, she shares it on her web site, Ladies Art Company. Quilt blocks continued to be advertised well into the 1960s, most notably in the Kansas City Star. Ruby Short McKim, Eveline Foland, and Nancy Page (the pen name of Florence LaGanke Harris) were some of the designers whose work were syndicated all over the country. The Magic Vine was one of Nancy Page's most popular patterns and a free version can be found at the Sentimental Stitches website. Patterns were named after places (Road to Oklahoma, Indiana Puzzle), historical figures (Lafayette's Orange Peel), household objects (Churn Dash), etc. In the 1920s and 1930s, the names were given romantic histories by authors Carlie Sexton, Marie Webster, Ruth Finley and others. There is no evidence in wills, household inventories or diaries that these names were used by colonial settlers or westward pioneers.

Publishing patterns began to wane during and after WWII. During the 1950s and 1960s, patterns were exchanged through Round Robins, where pen pals traced and traded blocks originally published earlier. Mimeographed catalogs from Barbara Bannister and others offered reprints of the syndicated newspaper patterns. Homemade quilt newsletters Aunt Kate's Quilting Bee and Nimble Needle Treasures were the precursors of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine. The bicentennial began a renaissance in quiltmaking. Now we have many magazines, websites, and pattern companies to provide patterns.

This brings us to The Anvil. I drafted the pattern after finding it in Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. The pattern in Brackman had seams in the center square. Brackman's pattern was from an unknown source. I had no luck finding a reference to this pattern in the Kansas City Star, so I don't know where it originated. Finding the definitive name for a quilt pattern is impossible. Many patterns that are geometrically the same were given different names (Churn Dash, Hole in the Barn Door). Different geometric patterns were also given the same name (Corn and Beans). Add to that the infinite variations made by individual quilters and the quest becomes even more impossible. Brackman's Encyclopedia is currently the best compilation, but by no means a complete resource.

When I know the history of a quilt pattern, I will include it with the free pattern. However, I have only scratched the surface of this topic. If quilt pattern history interests you I recommend the following websites for a start: Barbara Brackman: Quilt Historian, American Quilt Study Group, Quilt Patterns & Their History (includes free patterns!), and the Quilt History List.

Next week: Party Basket

Block By Block Quilts, Getting Started

When quilt historians of the future look at the quiltmaking trends of the late 20th century, the Sampler quilt is going to stand-out. Over the years I have drafted many blocks to the size of 12”. I like this scale in proportion to bed quilts and because it divides easily by both 3 and 4, it’s perfect for 4-Patch and 9-Patch blocks.

In the early 1990s, I taught a block of the month quiltmaking class at a local quilt shop. After the first year, I designed the blocks for the class. In 1995, these blocks were turned into my book Block By Block. The book is now out of print but you can still find it at Amazon.com, eBay and some quilt shops. After Block By Block was published, I continued designing blocks and sold them to quilt shops all over the country for their block of the month classes. The quilt on the left, I called the Desert Sampler and it is comprised of both traditional and original blocks from the pattern service.

I will be offering the blocks from this quilt on these posts. But before we start on the blocks, here are some thoughts on how to choose fabrics. Choosing fabrics can be very scary, especially for beginners. If you've been quilting for a long time, you're used to placing stripes next to polka dots, and after awhile, all fabrics look good together. But if you're new, one of the easiest ways to pick colors is to find one fabric you really like and use it to choose your other fabrics. I call it the bold fabric. The next fabric to choose is your background. This is the place your eye rests and makes the pieces in your blocks standout. After that you can add at least 4 accent fabrics. These should not be as striking as the bold fabric, and will be used to make the bold fabric look good. Don't worry if the accent fabrics don't all go together. They don't have to be used next to each other or in the same block. The main fabric I chose for the Desert Sampler is used as the border and in the large pieces in the blocks. I chose a peach tone on tone for the background, because it was the same shade as the background in my bold fabric. The accents include, brown, royal blue, rust, and a yucky green. They all appear in the bold fabric and I probably wouldn't have thought of putting them together if I hadn't loved the bold fabric. Don't be afraid to add more fabrics to the ones I suggest here. The backgrounds can be many different peach tone on tones. The same goes for the accents. I prefer to use as many fabrics as I can. I, like many of my quilting friends, have a huge stash of fabrics that I like to draw from. I also believe that if you choose many fabrics and one is wrong, it won't show much, but if you choose only three fabrics and one is wrong, you have trouble. Make sure you consider scale and value in your choices. Mix up small scale prints, with medium scale prints, stripes, plaids and geometrics in your accents. Going from light to dark in value also adds interest.

To start the project I've got some free handouts for you. The Desert Sampler is a lap size quilt with 12, 12" blocks. The Layout Chart shows you how to arrange the 12" blocks with sashing and cornerstones to create quilts sized from Wall to King. The second handout is a Fabric Yardage Chart for all the sizes given in the Layout Chart. My next blog will be the first block in the quilt, The Anvil. There will also be instructions on putting the quilt to together and information on borders for the different sized quilts in future blogs.

Savanna's Quilt Part 3

This is the last part of the free quilt pattern, Savanna's Quilt. Instructions on how to make the borders are found by clicking Savanna's Quilt Part 3. I love pieced borders and use them often in my quilts. It fascinates me to go from one color to another without using straight lines. I don't know what the name of this border is. I saw a picture of an Anne Orr style basket quilt from the 1930s that used this style for the final border. I call it Dental Border because it reminds me of a design used in moldings made by woodworkers.

Pieced borders can be tricky. For the borders to turn the corners successfully, measurements and construction must be accurate. In the course of quiltmaking many things affect the outcome. First the math in the design must be right. Next, measuring, cutting, sewing and pressing all have an impact.

In my instructions, you will find measurements given for every stage of construction. This will help you remain on track before going to the next step. When I design a pieced border, I almost always have a floating border between the body and the pieced border. I like the look of the body being separated from the pieced border and it's a place where you can make adjustments if your measurements are off. For instance, if you've finished the body of the quilt and it is too large, you can make the floating border narrower to accommodate it. If the body of the quilt is too small, you can make the floating border wider to accommodate it.

Another problem can occur in the pieced border itself. Most pieced borders are long and it's very easy for a small error in each seam to multiply into a problem when fitting it to the quilt. While sewing the pieced units together, stop and measure after a few to see if you're on track. If you still end up too long, choose a few seams over the length of the border to re-sew with a slightly large seam allowance. This will be less noticeable than if you just lopped off the end of the border. If the border is too short, you can do the opposite and choose a few seams to re-sew with a narrower seam allowance.

Pieced borders are one of my favorite things to design and sew in a quilt. This is an easy one and I hope you enjoy making it.

Savanna's Quilt Part 2

Part 2 of Savanna's quilt is ready. Just click Savanna Part 2 for your free copy. As I was writing this pattern I was thinking about my favorite ways to applique. First, I'll admit that applique is not my favorite part of quiltmaking, but I have managed to do a nice job when I need it.

In the early 1990s I ran a quilt retreat in Northern Michigan. Being the retreat organizer, I got to choose the teachers who were hired and I hired some of the best appliquers. When I read my Quilter's Newsletter Magazine I don't see these ladies names often, so I want to share them with you. They are all active and still doing amazing work. Please check out these talented women: Elly Sienkiewicz, the queen of the Baltimore Album style quilt and a great storyteller; Pat Campbell, the woman who converted Jacobean embroidery into gorgeous applique; Jeanna Kimball whose simple designs exuded a wonderful animation; and Charlotte Warr Andersen whose pictorial and portraiture quiltmaking is second to none. I hope you enjoy their websites.

They also offer wonderful products that make appliqueing more enjoyable.

Savanna's Quilt Part 1

One of life’s great joys is girlfriends. 27 years ago I met my two best friends, Jennifer and Kristen. We had all just had our first babies and met in a Mother-Baby class. The class started with 8 mothers, 8 babies and 1 nurse. Now 3 of us mothers still meet each week for a lunch we call Baby Day. We have 7 kids aged 23 to 27. Our first grandchild was born to Kristen’s daughter Jenny on January 27, 2008. Jenny named her Savanna Marie.

Now, there is no better way to celebrate a new baby, than a baby quilt. And, as I’m still trying to finish up UFO’s, I designed this baby quilt around a set of appliquéd heart blocks given to me by another friend, Leanna Brunsell. I alternated the heart blocks with a scrappy old block called Thrifty. The last inspiration was a quilt I saw on eBay that had a nifty, easy Dental Molding border. Add it all together and Savanna’s Quilt was born. I have turned the project into a free quilt pattern! The pattern will be in three parts. Click on Savanna, Part 1, the Thrifty block, to download the first two pages. In the next two weeks you can download Savanna, Part 2, the appliquéd heart and Savanna, Part 3, the borders.

For anyone near Morehead City, North Carolina, make sure and attend the Quilt Flap. To quote Pepper Cory from her blog, it's "a glorious show-n-tell... showing strange-n-wonderful quilts from my collection." Also attending are quilt preservation and repair experts Lynn Gorges and Janice Pope. Bring yourself, your old quilts, and your camera.
When: Saturday June 21, 2008
Where: the auditorium of The History Place, 1008 Arendell St., downtown Morehead City NC.
Starts: 8:30 AM till 10 AM socializing, register etc. The real thing begins at 10 and goes to noon. recommences 1-4 PM.
Make sure and go to Pepper's Blog to learn more about this excellent quilt adventure.

Pearl's Stars

This is my latest finished quilt. Titled Pearl's Stars because I finished it for my friend Pearl Yee Wong. Pearl works with me at the MSU Museum and is a great photographer. When I decided to start blogging I knew I wanted good images of my quilts and made a trade with Pearl. If she would photograph my quilts, I would make her one. She agreed. The results of both our efforts are on the left; my quiltmaking and her photography.

I finished the top in the late 1980s. I drafted many of the traditional star patterns myself and included many stars from my favorite contemporary quilt block maker, Judy Martin. These blocks were found in her Ultimate Quilt Block Book. I'm also a big fan of pieced borders, so I added some 4 1/4" squares on point. The top was not lying as flat as I like so I put it away (for 20 years!) When I approached Pearl about my project, I showed her this top and she said she liked it; so I made a few alterations so it would lie flat and machine quilted it for her.

Like many quiltmakers, I have an abundance of UFO's (un-finished objects). And it's not enough that I have ones that I've started myself, but I've bought tops and blocks on eBay and at yard sales. For the last two years I've been trying to finish these up. Some projects I still like and others just need to be put out of their artistic misery, but the practical side of me just can't do that yet.

Finishing another quilter's work whether it is an anonymous person or a close friend is a noble act. Quilters' Hall of Famer, Mary Schafer finished an amazing amount of work by her best pen pal Betty Harriman. You can see the fruits of this labor at the
Great Lakes Quilt Center website. She also finished many tops and made quilts from vintage blocks from anonymous makers. The Sunbonnet Sues in Canoes are a local Lansing, MI group who finished quilts made by their friend Gail Hill. When Gail passed away from breast cancer, they finished some of her projects for her sons.

Hope springs eternal and I'm planning on sharing more finished UFO's in the coming blogs. I'd love to hear from you about your UFO's. Pearl's interest in the star top was the motivation I needed to complete it. If you're stalled and need encouragement, or if there's some problems that you don't know how to fix, share it here and we can move another quilt to the finished project, ready for show and tell pile.