Teach Yourself Blocks From the Past QAL

My friends Marion and Natalie are hosting this fun Quilt Along! It uses this book, Teach Yourself Blocks From the Past. It's from 2001 and it's all about traditional blocks. The idea is that many of these blocks would look AWESOME in more modern fabrics. Check out Marion's blog for more details about how it all will work.

 I'll be hosting three stops on the QAL, but I wanted to do a quick post about how I'm doing things differently. In the book there are 72 blocks, and they all finish at 6". These are small blocks. Small. I decided that I did not want to put effort into making a bunch of blocks and only have a small quilt to show for it at the end. So I'm making my blocks larger and arranging them into a medallion. I'm so excited about it! I've wanted to make a medallion quilt for a long time, so it should be fun.

You can see my basic layout in the photo above. I'm putting a 36" block in the center. I think I will either do a traditional Labyrinth (but with only one "border," not two like it is in the picture) or possibly a Carpenter's Star (this pattern is by my amazingly talented friend Deonn!) in that area. The center will be surrounded by Twelve 12" blocks and four 8" x 12" flying geese units, with 2" sashing. That whole section will be turned on point and each corner will have a 24" block, two 12" blocks, and four 10" triangles, which I may or may not piece. I might just use one fabric for those. Still thinking about it. I spent a bunch of quality time with my graph paper a few days ago and I'm so pleased with how this is going to turn out! The only measurement I haven't figured out yet is how wide the border/sashing around the center section will be to get it to fit. It will be somewhere between 3" and 4", but I'll have to wait to check that one before assembling it.

I'm not sure how large the original quilt in the book ends up, but with these adjustments my quilt will finish up at around 104" square. Maybe 106" if I do a 3" border instead of 2".

Have I mentioned that I like big quilts? Because I totally do.

I will not be making all of the blocks in the book. I chose the 24 that I like the best and I will be making those, and then the center block I'll do isn't in the book, but still will be a traditional pattern. I love this concept, which really isn't new, of putting a modern spin on traditional blocks. It will be fun to see what people come up with!

So what do you think? Want to join us and make a sampler? I can post more detailed measurements as we go along if anyone is interested, so PLEASE let me know if you want them. Or you can just look at my lovely graph paper in the photo above. One square =2".

Follow the QAL on Instagram with the Hashtag #BFTPqal for Blocks From the Past. Be sure to check out Marion's post today for more details!