Instructions – Block of the Month 2003-2004

Introduction

Welcome to the 2003/2004 Block of the Month program. Kay Ward and I (Steffani McChesney) are your co-chairmen for this year. We have decided to do something a little different this time by tying the block of the month into the 2004 Cotton Patch Quilters quilt show. The theme for the show is A Quilter's Garden so we have decided to make a flower sampler quilt we call Flowers for a Quilter's Garden. And you can make one too.

A whole quilt? Yes, a whole quilt. If you make at least two of each block, one to keep and one to put in the monthly drawing, you will have a complete quilt top. We have included three extra blocks so that you will have a block for every month of the year when you are done. The blocks are twelve inches square finished. I have used two-inch sashing, a one-inch inner border and a six-inch outer border for a 58-inch by 71-inch finished quilt.

we have picked blocks that reflect the theme using floral fabrics for flowers, green fabrics for foliage and white or white tone-on-tone fabrics for the backgrounds. Kay made her quilt to reflect what we will ask you to turn in for the drawing each month. I made mine with a black background just to show another possibility since I can't resist using black in a quilt.

The blocks are all traditional blocks or blocks that were printed in newspapers, magazine, and mail order catalogs from the late 1800s through the mid 1950s. Listed with each block are some of the names it was known by and the publication in which it was printed. I took them from the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns compiled by Barbara Brackman. A computer CD is available from the Electric Quilt software company called Blockbase that is compatible with the Electric Quilt design software.

Ms Brackman is a quilt historian and had done extensive reserarch to discover the sources of these bocks. She looked through publication archives in libararies and private collections. Here are the publicatrions where our blocks of the month were found.

• Comfort was published in Auguta, Maine from 1888 to 1942. Patterns were printed in the magazine and sold through mail order. The magazine also printed some booklets of patterns.

• Aunt Kate's Quilting Bee magazine was published between July 1962 and July 1967 in Vinta, Oklahoma.

• Ohio Farmer began publication around 1810 as the Ohio Practical Farmer in Cleveland. Quilt patterns appreared on the women's pages in the 1890s.

• The Needlecrafts Supply mail order house of Chicago sold patterns, kits, and fabric in the 1930s.

• American Farmer carried quilt pattterns but I could find no other information about it.

• The Chicago Tribune featured a daily column written by Loretta Leitner Rising unde the nom de plume Nancy Cabot from 1933 through 1939. She designed many of the patterns. Hundreds of patterns were sold under the Nancy Cabot name printed in booklets and sold through mail order. Patttrns were also sold through the Progressive Farmer, a periodical published in Birmingham, Alabama since 1895. Patterns were sold through the Spinning Wheel Syndicate during the 1930s and 1940s under the name of Betty Jones.

• Ladies Art Company, a mail order catalog started in 1899, sold patchwork patterns

• The Kansas City Star newspaper, pub liched betwqeen 1928 and 1960, printed over 1,060 block patterns once a week, many contributed by readers.

• Ruth Finley published the book Old Patchwork Quilts and the Women Who Made Them in 1929. She collected paterns and their names throughout New York, Ohio, and around New England. The book was reprinted in 1992.

• The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt written by Carrie Hall and Rose Kretsinger in 1935 is one of the classics on the subject. The book lists over 800 block names they found in newspapers, books, and mail order catalogs. The book has been reprinted by Dover Books.

• Woman's World was a periodical published in Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s. Quilt patterns were sold throgh mail order.

• The Rural New Yorker was published from 1841 through the mid twentieth century.

Many blocks have several names. Sometimes the names are different due to geographical location. Name of quilt blocks can reflect local events or history. The names of blocks we are familiar with today were not even known in the nineteenth centrury. They were called by other names. for example, Grandmother's Flower Garden was known by the name Hexagon. As Florence Peto wrote in American Quilts and Coverlet in 1949, "It is not wise to be didactic about the nomenclature of quilt patters." Barbara Brackman seconds that thought. She states in the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, "Pattern names, like all vocabulary, change over time. The right name for a pattern is what you call it."

So call them what you will, just keep making those quilt blocks. We hope you will make lots of blocks for the monthly drawing and have some fun too.

General Instructions

There are a couple of patches that are used to construct several of the blocks so we have incuded the instructions for making them here.

One is the half square triangle unit and the other is the flying geese unit. In some of the cases you will only need one of the half square triangles so you can use the other one in another block.

The half square triangle unit method makes two patches at the same time. The formula is to take the finished sizeof the square patch and add 7/8 inches to it. Cut two squares of the two colors you want your block to be and place the right sides together, darkest on the bottom. Draw a line from corner to corner. Sew a quarter of an inch along each side of the line. Cut the triangles apart along the drawn line. Press to the dark side of the resulting square and trim the ears. The measurements in the instructions for each block are the corrrect ones you need to make the half square tiangle for that particular one.

The flying geese unit method is just as easy. For a three inch by six inch unit, cut two 3-1/2 inch squares and one 3-1/2 inch rectangle. These are the measurements of the only flying geese unit used in the block of the month booklet this time. Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner of the square as in the half square triangle. Position on the rectangle and sew on the drawn line. Repeat with the other square on th opposite corner. Cut out the back two pieces of fabric and press to the dark.

All blocks are twelve inches finished (12-1/2 inch blocks unfinished). This is very important. These blocks don't trim down well because of all the points.

The rotary cutting method is used rather than templates. Hey, we want this to be as easy and fun as possible.

Be careful sewing these blocks. I pinned a lot to help control bias stretch and to match seams and points. I know it takes more time but the results are worth it.

To finish the quilt to the same size as the sample use two-inch sashing, a one-inch inner border and a six-inch outer border for a 58-inch by 72-inch finished quilt. These measurements are all finished ones so be sure to add the seam allowances to the strips for the sashing and borders.

Remember: Use all floral fabrics for the flowers, geeen fabrics for the foliage and white or white tone-on-tone fabrics for the backgrounds for the blocks for the drawing.

If you have any questions or problems, please stop by the table at the quilt meetings or give us a ccall. We are listed in the guild directory.