Morris Tapestry Blues

I'm thinking snow

And indigo blue.

Variable Star block from about 1850 in an indigo blue print

Wey in the Kelmscott Indigo colorway

We're offering lots of blues in my William Morris reproduction collection A Morris Tapestry---a snowstorm of blues.

Designer William Morris loved indigo. He and his dyer Thomas Wardle (right) worked hard

to produce a variety of blues with the old fashioned dye.

Although we use synthetic dyes today we've also worked hard to get a good range

 of blues from light to dark in A Morris Tapestry.

You might want to start a winter project with a traditional star and a wintery mix of blues.

The blocks in these sketches are 10 inches. See rotary cutting directions below.

In both quilt designs the stars are set next to a second pieced block and use a variety of the blue prints.

Drifting Snow

82" x 82"

The alternate block is a square pieced of 2 half-square triangles, turned in 2 directions.

For 10" finished blocks cut squares 10 7/8" and cut in half diagonally.

You need 24 of these blocks, so cut 12 light squares and 12 dark squares.

Blizzard

82" x 82"

Same star arrangement but the alternate block is pieced of 4 triangles.

For 10" finished blocks cut squares 11 1/4" and cut into 4 triangles.

You need 25 of these blocks, so cut 12 light squares and 12 dark squares.

The lovely Japanese prints are from the Library of Congress collection. They have a large collection of 19th-century woodblock prints online.

Click here:

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/jpd/

And see other posts about indigo blue and Thomas Wardle by clicking here:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2009/11/indigo-prints-resist-and-discharged.html

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2009/09/morris-workshop-colors.html  

Cutting the 10" finished star blocks:
For each quilt you will need 12 light stars and 13 dark stars.
For each star....
A Cut 4 squares 3".
B Cut 1 square 6 1/4". Cut into 4 triangles with 2 diagonal cuts.
C Cut 4 squares 3 3/8". Cut into 2 triangles with 1 diagonal cut.
D Cut 1 square 5 1/2".

Cutting the 6 inch finished border:
I'd use one of the large-scale prints.


Wey has a diagonal direction;


 Daffodil runs parallel to the quilt's edge and


Bachelor's Button is less directional.
You'll need 2 1/3 yards. Cut the borders before the blocks and you'll have left-overs for the blocks.
Cut 4 strips 82 1/2" by 6 1/2".
Miter the border corners.