Sougan in Union Blues: Free Pattern

Sougan Under the Stars in Union Blues

78" x 91"

I sketched the pieced and appliqued above in my newest reproduction collection

for Moda: Union Blues. Yardage and precuts are available in shops now.

The pattern comes from Calico Cowboys,

 a pattern book Karla Menaugh

and I did several years ago.

Jean Stanclift made the original Sougan Under the Stars in woven plaids and checks. We used strips cut 7" x 13-1/2" and for the edges 7" squares.

Jean chose six blues (1-1/8 yard each).

You need 77 rectangles and 

 14 squares.

Deb Rowden stitched one in mustards and goldenrod

The star for the 7" strips should be about 12" to cover two strips. We give you a variety of stars in the book. You can print the pattern above on an 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of paper, It will be 8". If you have a larger printer, print it at 150% to get a large star.

You can always find star patterns on the web. Do a web search for the words "printable star pattern."

I found this version of Sougan Under the Stars by 

Katherine Kanagy online. She

combined cowboy prints and golden stars.

You may not know what a sougan is. It's a regional word for a utility quilt. Cowboys out on the range slept in bedrolls, often with a sougan in the middle.

See a photo of an old sougan, once part of a bedroll at the Library of Congress:

http://www.loc.gov/item/ncr002302/

Bedrolls in camp

Photos by Russell Lee in 1938

Library of Congress

Comedian Will Rogers recalling his days as a cowboy:

"I staked [my horse] out in good grass and hit the old sougans, as I was dead tired."

We still have some new copies of Calico Cowboys for sale

in my Etsy shop. Click here:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BarbaraBrackmanShop?ref=l2-shop-info-name

Alice's Scrapbag: New Repro Prints

Strike-offs for a fall reproduction line:

Alice's Scrapbag

Balmoral Blue shades

Frock pink & Garibaldi Red shades

Most of the prints come from the four-patch below.

Double Four Patch by Alice Browne, age 9 in 1867

This simple quilt is pieced of blocks made from scraps of 

Alice's family's home sewing.

How do I know?

Alice wrote a note stitched to the lower left front in the picture above:

" This quilt was pieced---a complete surprise for my mother---when I was nine years old. Almost every piece in it is from dresses of members of the family."

Alice L. Metcalf 

Alice Lancaster Browne (1858-1929) made the blocks for this quilt as a gift for her mother Catherine Mechling Browne. Alice's father had died in Kentucky during the Civil War, the same year Alice's sister Josephine was born. Soon after her mother was widowed, Alice, sisters and her mother went to live with Catherine's parents in western Pennsylvania.

We can imagine mother Catherine's delight at seeing the neat double four-patches made from prints from the family scrapbag.

A tiny calico

I would bet that Alice's Pennsylvania-German grandmother Anne Eliza Heiner Mechling has something to do with the surprise.

In the 1870s mother, grandmother and three daughters moved to Lawrence, Kansas, my home town. It looks to me like the quilt was set and quilted in the 1870s when Alice was a teenager, probably finished here.

Lawrence in the 1860s with the Bullene store in the center. Kansas State Historical Society

Alice married William Lathrop Bullene when she was about 18. William came to Lawrence, Kansas Territory as a child with his parents in 1857. His father opened a dry goods store, which is still in business here as Weaver's Department Store.

With William Bullene, Alice had two daughters Marguerite and Frederica. The youngest inherited the quilt with the note from her mother attached. Frederica's granddaughter has cared for the quilt into the 21st century.

Alice's in-laws the Bullenes with her youngest daughter 

Frederica the child in the center.

Alice and William divorced after 14 years of marriage. When Alice was 55 she married Brigadier General Wilder S. Metcalf during World War I.

A pink foulard with a textured background---

Probably a dress for Alice or her sisters.

Two reproductions at the bottom.

Alice's  family allowed me to photograph the prints in the quilt. We've chosen several to reproduce in a fabric collection coming out in late summer, 2015.

Alice's Scrapbag

The pink here is a reproduction of the tiny brown calico

Moda's sales reps are showing Alice's Scrapbag now, but the precuts won't be available until August. Here's a sneak peek.
http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_alices-scrapbag.pdf

A touch of olive in the reproduction of the brown figure.

Read more about the Bullene family's experience during Quantrill's Raid in the Civil War at this post:
http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-lawrence-kansas-sesquicentennial.html

More Strip Sets at an Angle

Bedquilt made by Sarah K. Headley, date-inscribed 1838,

Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Collection of the International Quilt Study Center and Museum

See a larger photo here:
http://cdn.firespring.com/images/60563f92-8dbd-4ee8-b856-21fbb3b56044.jpg

Georgann Eglinski's version for an American Quilt Study Group

project interpreting antique quilts made before 1840.

I showed a strip quilt set an angle in this recent post:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2015/04/union-blues-richmond-reds-ideas-for.html

A mid-19th century Flying Geese quilt with the geese

flying northeast.

 You rarely come across a vintage quilt with strips at an angle.

This last quarter of the 19th- century example was at the Kalona Quilt Show a few years ago

Here's a quilt that is pieced of two strips, red solids and a shirting print.

I wonder if the color contrast in the reds

was in the original or there's been some fading.

I'm guessing it was always two shades of red.

The idea of a strip set at a 45 degree angle

is enticing.

I Photoshopped the 19th-century top below

and put it aslant.

And  an early 20th-century diamond strip too

Are they more interesting on the diagonal?

The scarcity of quilts in a diagonal set may be explained by the quilt below.

Diagonals mean bias problems.

20th century strip quilt

But the possibilities make it worth the extra effort, as in

this Photoshopped chintz crib quilt from about 1830.

The original quilt was pictured in an old

Quilt Engagement Calendar

Chelair's Union Blues Kit Quilt

Union Blues by Chelair Etter

Have you seen the ad for my Union Blues kit in the March/April issue of QUILTmania?

http://www.quiltmania.com/english/navigation-entete-droite/boutique.html

Carrie at the Moda blog has pointed out that

there's a typo in Chelair's name

The headline should read "Union Blues Made by Chelair Etter"

Me at market last fall in my virtual booth

Now I know you like to think I sew all these quilts but

I tell you this quilt is beyond my skills.

But not Chelair's. She wears many hats at United Notions

including quiltmaker. Below is a great quilt she made

for the Collections for a Cause line 

Warmth a few years ago

The Union Blues kit is available now. Check at your local shop.