I've spent months working on Christmas and kids' quilts. It's fine and I'm happy to be using up the fabric. But here's the thing...after a while, it feels like I've been eating nothing but candy for weeks. Eventually we all want a piece of meat, baked potato and a vegetable. This all brings me to the evenings when the tv is boring (usually), and I look at antique and vintage quilts online for inspiration.
My meat, potato and vegie dinner are two color quilts these days. In particular, I gravitate to navy and white quilts. I don't know why, perhaps it is calming, perhaps it is just a cleansing of my visual palette.
I found this one last week at Etsy (here):
At first glance, I thought it was a modern (today) quilt. But on closer scrutiny, realized the quilt is about a 100 years old (give or take). The graphic nature of this piece is so unusual and yet it fits so well in the two color category.
This pattern is known as quarter log cabin and Barbara Brackman did a nice post about the pattern here. The pattern is really popular with current quilters. It's easy to assemble, often has a festive look about it, and you can see some examples here on pinterest.
Years ago, I made a variation of the pattern but with a much bigger middle section. I'm most inspired by fabric itself and wanted to show off this poppy fabric. I can't find a photo of the finished quilt (gifted long ago) but you get the idea:
All of this is well and fine but I think at this point I prefer the graphic simplicity of the simple blue and white quilt.
When I look at antique or vintage quilts anymore, it isn't with the thought of actually buying them but instead making something similar myself. In fact, I rarely make quilts that have the same pattern as ones I've collected.
I am sure I can easily draft a pattern for the blue and white quilt and hope to make one someday soon. I'm just not sure about the stripes on the piece and wonder what you think about them.
Do you like this quilt? What are your thoughts? What is your favorite two color combination?
Wishing you a safe and happy day!
I have an antique indigo and white quilt (feathered star) so when I made a blue and white quilt I wanted one like a photo I had seen with
ReplyDeletea blue from the 30's. I made it into a Crown of Thorns pattern. It's a soft blue and I love it. Last year I wanted a red and white quilt. That's all I could think about. I ended up making two. I've only got one of them quilted so far. The next one I think I'll make is going to be orange and white. I'm envisioning a muted orange not a bright one. I really like the log cabin quilt you picked out. I think it would be easy to mark for hand quilting. The strips in the border are nice and don't detract from the center blocks.
There used to be an advert many years ago "I liked it so much I bought the company" (Remington I think), well, I like this quilt so much I also will be drafting a pattern! I'm going to try maybe a flying geese strip or maybe a coin strip or perhaps a one diamond strip in place of the stripes, see what I come up with later. I shall probably still keep it in two colours throughout. Look forward to seeing what you decide. Elaine in UK
ReplyDeleteI think I favor the blue and white combo, mainly because we had one with blue shirtings, probably from the turn of the century. One of my brothers inherited it and I would love to duplicate the pattern.
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