Patchwork Quilting - Picking That Away from each other

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Patchwork Quilting - Picking That Away from each other! WHAT is this issue wreaking havoc in the patchwork quilting world? No problem, it isn't hampering the masses from making millions of quilts a year... BUT it is hampering those who want to make their own UNIQUE quilts! It is simply not being able to design their own unique 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 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 type of patchwork quilting patterns for over 25 years, but once you can try any quilt block, decide which are the bare bones with the block... then the gloves come off and YOU are in control! 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 figured it a good time to talk a little about how one analyzes patchwork quilting by in this way picking them apart. Those two books are both GREAT resource tools by any quilter and this article will start you off on getting the most from both of them. First you must realize there are major divisions in patchwork quilting blocks that just about 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 can end up with a general design. Think of the pattern "Grandmother's Flower Garden" and you have pictured a one patch quilt composed of only one size hexagon! When you get into patchwork quilting that are quilts composed 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 are adventurous, change out the elements that you don't that can compare with as well to replace them 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 go to the bother her book categorizes them for you personally! The first of these block divisions can be described as 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 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 entire block consists of four equal sized smaller squares, and you can even see that while a couple of them are comprised 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 literally hundreds of them! One that you're certain 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 set together you have a quilt that takes on an overall pattern. In this case they actually constitute a bigger nine patch of their own and a cute baby quilt. With the addition of more blocks together you can make whatever size quilt that suits you. And since You have made the pattern yourself, YOU control the size of each block, and hence how big the overall quilt! Notice in this example how the white seems 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 5 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 colors really is really a huge difference in how a block "reads"! Lastly, lets look at Seven Patch patchwork quilting Blocks: each block comprises of seven equal divisions both across and down. Ab muscles traditional Bears Claw is a fine example. By mere selection of fabrics the quilt can be very traditional, or it can take over a more modern look! This is simply a glimpse at just a FEW of many, MANY patchwork quilting patterns accessible to you in these block grids. Perhaps we will take a look in depth at them in the very near future! Make sure you check out my Patchwork Quilting website for more to come!


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