Perkiomen blocks: Possibilities

Start with a number of blocks similar to the one on the right (16 patch block). I described the beginning of these blocks, and why each block finishes at one inch square in a previous post.

Here is one way to arrange 16 blocks.  With the light/dark boundary on the diagonal, you can arrange these blocks as you would log cabin blocks.  This is called the Barn Raising set.

Above is another way to arrange blocks.  This format takes 20 blocks.

Below is a more complicated arrangement.  I did not have quite enough blocks  to finish it, at the time I took this photo.

The above design is based on a vintage quilt pictured in Barbara Brackman's blog, Material Culture, in a post on Perkiomen Valley quilts.  Scroll down to the bottom of her post. 

I now have enough blocks to finish this, and I'll show you the steps along the way, this next week.  To make it scrappy, pick rather light fabrics, and rather dark fabrics, and believe in the power of value!

Viridian

Perkiomen blocks: the beginning

So, let's say that you rotary cut many many strips 1.5 inches wide, 6 inches long, for a quilt in the pattern above. 

I followed the directions in Mary Ellen Hopkins' A Log Cabin Notebook.  This pattern is near the end and is called the bunkhouse quilt. You can find a similar quilt (with instructions) on Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville website.  She calls it the Pioneer Braid.

So, let's say you don't plan ahead unless you have a limited amount of one particular fabric.  Err, that would be me. I cut many strips from older fabric, ugly fabric, reproduction fabric, fabric from exchanges ugly reproduction fabric... you get the idea. The plan was stash reduction.  Now: The bunkhouse quilt top is done. (Double bed sized!) And I have many many left-over strips of mixed fabrics, all 1.5 inches wide by 6 inches long, filling a large plastic bag.  I can't throw them out! Now what?

The other day I was reading Barbara Brackman's blog, Material Culture and her entry on the Perkiomen Valley patch.  It's a split nine-patch with half dark, half light areas.  Sometimes a 16 patch is used.  See Barbara's blog post and the picture below. (sorry, my flash has washed things out.)

My a-ha moment: I would strip piece two or three light or dark 1.5 inch strips together, then cross cut them at 1.5 inches.  I would also cut some 1 7/8 inch squares for the light/dark triangles, using various scraps.  I could make a nine patch, as on the left, or a 16 patch, as on the right.

Now, each square finishes at one inch, meaning many little patches and lots of piecing.  But it will make a great scrappy wall hanging.

I would like to develop directions for a wall hanging-sized project and publish it here, but my readers (all 62 of them) will have to wait. One, I have a family vacation coming up.  And two, I need to calculate yardages and take more pictures of the process.  So I am leaving you with just a taste until the end of June or early July.

See you then!

Viridian

Bunk house or prairie braid quilt project

What a great stash-busting project!
Have you seen this kind of quilt pattern before? It's also sometimes called Braided Border. You work with long strips - adding light and dark fabrics to the end. Above is what they look like, rolled into a manageable size for the sewing machine.


This is what they look like unrolled and laid out side by side. You get a neat light and dark chevron pattern.

I am using instructions from Mary Ellen Hopkins A Log Cabin Notebook. Each individual strip is cut 1 and 1/2 inches by 6 inches - they finish at 1 inch wide.

Close up: What a great way to use up ugly fabric. Well, I thought it was pretty once! And you can mix contemporary and reproduction fabrics with 'vintage fabrics' from the 80's and 90's and it still looks great.

I won't post instructions here. I'm not sure I could write them clearly enough.

Bonnie Hunter has instructions on her web site and several different variations.

See her Pioneer Braid Border page. I am sure there are other web sites with instructions too.

Other than cutting many many strips, and thinking about lights and darks, this is a pretty simple quilt to make, which may be just what you need. I pull this out in-between other projects where I have to sew things in a certain order, or I have to carefully match corners.

I am also working on a pinwheel pattern with my real feedsack fabric - more on that later.

viridian

30's stash - for Rosa

Dear Rosa:
This picture is esp. for you. On the floor of my sewing room is the rest of my Dear Jane stash that didn't make it into my first picture, plus my old bureau, where every drawer is stuffed to the brim with 30's reproduction fabrics. I must have every repro fabric made since the very first Aunt Grace line, more than 15 years ago. On the floor is my recent overflow of actual 30s and 40s fabrics and more repros. Not shown in this picture: 2 under bed totes filled with actual vintage feed sacks, and two largish totes in my bedroom closet filled with more reproduction fabric, from the past few years after I filled this bureau. Other unsorted fabric is stuffed all around the room.