I've had this small stack of fairly ancient quilt blocks hanging around for quite some time, which were given to me by my MIL (given to her by ?? neither of whom had any use for them). Mostly double 9-patches, plus a handful of random one-off blocks. The 9-patches are mainly shirtings - I'm guessing time-era to be 40's? Could be older...?
I've loved these poor discarded blocks and visited them from time to time, but never had a clue what the heck I was ever going to do with them. They were not suitable for sewing together, as they looked to have been cut out of a top already, leaving no seam allowances along the outer edges. Some cuts went deep into the 9-patches themselves, compromising them even more.
So there they sat, until I had sort of an "aha" moment, which was more like an "aha" couple of months.
Inspiration started brewing as I became obsessed with looking at antique doll quilts on Pinterest, and by other quilters who make really cool doll quilts out of vintage fabrics. I started thinking, maybe I could do this with my old blocks. Part of the "aha" was when I realized that a no-seam-allowance 9-patch could easily be finished as a Puss-in-the Corner block (albeit somewhat wonky, in this case). Anyway, I finally decided I might as well go ahead and start to deconstruct the blocks, and see what I might come up with.
This is what's on my design wall today.
Fun! Well, mostly...
The hard part was, the sewing was so tight there was no way I was going to be able to pick the units apart. I finally settled for cutting them apart along the remaining seam lines, which wasn't a big deal, seeing the outside edges had already been compromised. I ended up with a nice handful of trimmed nine-patches, which will become Puss-in-a corner blocks. The most mutilated ones became 4-patches. All good!
Now the real fun begins, playing around with the units, and finding other vintage fabrics to go with them. Luckily I have a few (not many) small pieces, including the indigo and shirtings I scored at our Quilt Show Bargain Garden earlier this year. Although I'd love to have more variety, these will definitely come in handy.
We'll see how the progress goes, and which ones make the final cut and turn into quilts.
Meanwhile, I started yet another project from the book, Quirky Little Quilts from Temecula Quilt Company.
Except I increased the block size from 3" to 6" and added a few more blocks. I kitted up 63 blocks, enough for a small throw. I'll work on this at my quilt retreat in November.
I'm having some weird kind of trouble with blogger right now, my y's and z's aren't showing up as I tyype, and my z's show up as a quotation mark. They do appear correctly in the preview, so hopefully it will all correct itself when I post this.
Stay tuned....
Sandy
I agree, those fabrics look like the 1940's but I'm not expert. How fun to finally be able to use the blocks.
ReplyDeleteI applaud you for jumping in and making something happen with those old blocks. I like where you are going with that little quilt.
ReplyDeleteThat is a really fun pattern from the Temecula book. Someday I am going to have time to make some of those quilts! :)
Ah, my favorite kinda projects, Orphan blocks! Have fun with that!!!! cheers, cw
ReplyDeleteIt will be fun to see what you make of these orphan blocks! Inspiration for all of us, i'm sure!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great solution for the old blocks, trimming them. Nothing sweeter than a classic nine patch, four patch..... or your puss in boots variation!
ReplyDeleteThe orphan blocks look like they would be very interesting to work with and imagine possibilities! Like your idea for cutting at the seams instead of taking apart!:)
ReplyDeleteLove what you are doing with your orphan blocks--so fun! I love that Temecula quilt and enlarging it is a great idea. I think it's very cute small, but that doesn't use up much of the stash--lol!
ReplyDeleteI used to have a stack of antique quilt blocks and like you, I did not know what to use them for other than looking at. You are putting yours to good use.
ReplyDelete