How I Use BlockBase: Exploded Blocks

BlockBase #1850

Monkey Wrench

If you have ever taught anyone to piece you know you have to teach them to organize the block along the seam lines.

BlockBase# 1817b

Bachelor's Puzzle

Sometimes it's easy to see the seam lines and figure out what patchwork units you have to make. You want to avoid all the set-in or Y seams you can.

And you want to avoid things like this...

BlockBase #1879

Bear's Foot

So you begin with easy blocks and most people figure it out pretty quickly.

BlockBase #2796

Wild Goose

But some blocks are trickier than others. This one is not really a Nine-Patch; it's what I called a Nine-X.

I've had students (ages 8 to whatever) who randomly piece things together, winding up with something like the above. So I often make a block diagram with an exploded block. 

Here's a similar block with a simple diagram. I do these exploded blocks with BlockBase. I manipulate the BlockBase picture in my photo program.

First I make a file under My Pictures. You always start picture projects by creating a file so you know where you've saved everything.

I created a file under the name AuntElizasStar. I find the picture in BlockBase using the Wildcard search (I look for Eliza) and save it as a BMP file.

Here's the button in the new edition---a little ninepatch means save as a BMP file.

I've selected the block and then I click on the BMP (bitmap) button.

In the older edition there's a camera icon up there on the top that means the same thing.

I save the block to my AuntElizasStar file.

Then I use my photo program. I use Photoshop but most photo programs can do this. I open my block picture in the photo program.

I make a new empty picture file that's larger than my star block. Here the empty file is 8x10 inches. The block is 5-1/2" inches. The hardest part is learning to select just parts of the block with a mouse. In Photoshop there is a selection tool called the Polygonal Lasso Tool that allows me to select a part of the block and then drop it into the new file. Above I've selected a part of the star block---the patchwork unit.

Here's how I'd piece the block.

I made the background darker so you could see the block parts.

I flattened the images by removing all the layers and saved it in the AuntElizasStar file as a new JPG named How-To.

And then I added a type layer.

"Make 4 of these"

You could add lots of type layers, like "Connect piece A to piece B. Repeat 4 times."

But patchwork is so visual. I think this explains it better than a lot of words.

BlockBase #2777

Grecian Square

Here's a block that could probably use a diagram. Another Nine-X seam line.

BlockBase #4130

Ribbon Border

This is under Miscellaneous. It's really supposed to be a border block.

It definitely would need an exploded block for the novice piecer.

How I Use BlockBase

Quilt top from about 1890-1920

What's the pattern?

BlockBase is a computer program for Windows and PC's that I wrote with the Electric Quilt Company. It's been updated for new operating systems and now is available again. I use BlockBase everyday and I thought I'd show you some of the ways I use it.

I began keeping a file of patterns in the early 1970s---I was going to make a quilt in every pattern. Note there are 4,000 patterns advertised. I gave up that goal. Then I was going to make an index card in every pattern with its published names. I almost did that.  I published small drawings from the index cards as a book ---The Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns---which is out of print. But it's all digitized in BlockBase.

One of my main interests was identifying pattern.

It's like solving puzzles to me.

Here's another red and white top from about 1900.

What's the pattern?

The first step is identifying the block.

I usually start at the corner and sketch it out--- digitally or with a pencil. Then I scroll through BlockBase until I find a category that fits. The categories are based on the seam lines. In this case Four Patch blocks "Like Hour Glass"

The major visual organization here:

• The block has 4 basic units: A Four Patch
• And at least two of those areas are pieced of triangles
• With a diagonal directionality

You can see that consistency in the screen view above. 

Sometimes it helps to rotate the block to match the direction in the index.

This block is at the top of the second column from the left.

If you click on "Notecard" you get a digital view of my index card.

It's number 1312 and was published in 1929 by the magazine Wallace's Farmer as "Hour Glass."

It was a popular pattern. Here's another way to shade and set it.

This quilt is probably from 1900-1920.

Here it is again, but grouped into larger blocks and then set with sashing

The block at the top of the page has the same pattern structure, but it's slightly more complicated so we'd find it on the same BlockBase page but further down. It's right below Hour Glass in the second column. The blocks are indexed from simple to complex.

It's number 1313 and has at least three published names:

• Crosses & Losses from the Ladies' Art Company about 1890
• Fox & Geese from Carrie Hall in 1935
• Bouncing Betty from the Pictorial Review in 1911

.

Here's an Amish Quilt dated 1898 from the Stephen & Faith Brown collection, a slightly more complicated design--- more squares cut into half square triangles.

The block is numbered 1316 and has many names. If you want to see all the names click on the "View Name List" button. This variation has been published many times with many names so you have to scroll down to see them all. Do notice that it's 1316a. Popular patterns were often published in various shadings so the a or b or c refers to a different shading.

Here's another color for 1316a

This variation of 1316 with a sort of a dark stripe across the

 center hasn't been published.

All the quilts I'm showing are from the years

 1890 to 1920 or so.

Here's a similar block that's a little older---by the madder browns I'd guess maybe 1875-1890. It's slightly different from those directly above---the triangles go a different direction.

 Now I know this is a bit OCD but this is an INDEX so you have to get fussy.

The block above is 1317---

Old Maid's Puzzle is one name.

If you like puzzles and patchwork you'll enjoy finding the patterns. But the best part is you can print out the pattern any size----

Rotary Cutting, Paper Piecing or  Templates as shown below

Any pattern---any size.

 

One good way to learn how you can use BlockBase is to join the BlockBase Sew Along by clicking here:

http://doyoueq.com/blog/category/blockbase-sew-along/

Jenny Novitsky gives you a project of the week and EXPLAINS how to do it!

Show Off Piecing: Victoria's Crown

Victoria's Crown or Caesar's Crown

Show-off piecing from the 1840-1865 era.

I've been posting about Show Off Piecing this summer, vintage quilts that look appliqued but are actually pieced. One of my favorites is Victoria's Crown or Full-Blown Tulip, a popular design after 1830 or so.

The block itself is difficult to piece into a square. Most people would applique it but look for seams from the points into the edges of the block, indicating the block is all pieced. I digitally enhanced this block from a quilt in the collection of the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum and I see faint seams, which I've indicated with the black lines.

See the whole quilt here at the Quilt Index:

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4E-86-160

Piecing such a difficult block is not really Show Off Piecing---it's just good sewing skills. What makes some versions Show Off Piecing is the extra shapes pieced into the background like the quilt below. It's not just pieced blocks, it's sashing pieced into the background too.

Pieced Sashing, like Pieced Borders, is Show Off Piecing

This version on the cover of the catalog of the Royal Ontario Museum has a British sensibility in the color scheme, purples and pinks.

Whereas this variation from Wylie House Museum in Bloomington, Indiana has the classic German-American color palette. See another shot at this post at SewUniqueCreations.

http://sewuniquecreations.blogspot.com/2011/03/wylie-house-museum-quilt-exhibit.html

The name Victoria's Crown comes from Ruth Finley's 1929 book. The block she shows is in BlockBase ( #3648).

I modified it a little here making the curved pieces a bit easier to piece. Finley showed them extending right into the corners. I imported the pattern from BlockBase into Electric Quilt, went into the Drawing Board Set Up and made the Snap Grid for the block 144 x 144 so I had lots of points to hang the lines on. Then I grabbed the lines with the Shape drawing tool and pulled them in a little in the corners and added a small seam.

 16 blocks, 64" square, all pieced.

It's still too show-offy for me to try to piece but I love to figure out the patterns. Of course, a real show off wouldn't piece it as a block but would make those pairs of white pieces one piece.

Lots of the comments on these show-off piecing posts are "Why?"

Sampler from Pennsylvania's Quaker Westtown School, 1801

One option is that the patterns were from needlework teachers. In the pre-sewing-machine age a girl's education was measured by her skills at sewing. Schools were competitive. Would it not be smart for the teacher to have her students excel at show off piecing. Other girls might learn to applique a design, but a pieced version would set one's students above the rest. More parents would be willing to enroll their girls.

This 1813 sampler labeled Weston School

may also be from the Westtown School,

but spelling consistency was not so valued as the stitchery.

Stella Rubin has a show-off version of the Victoria's Crown for sale

http://www.stellarubinantiques.com/items/499043/enlargement499043sra.html

A quilt found in West Virginia with a different shape linking the crowns.

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=50-8A-912

Here's a pieced block with applique  between---a very imaginative applique.

http://www.historic-american.com/19thCenturyQuilts.html

See a post I wrote about the block pattern here:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2009/10/buff-and-blue-number-2.html

Design a Block of the Month in BlockBase

My pattern software program BlockBase is back in print. It's a digital version of my old Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, which was a print version of a big box of index cards I kept in the 1970s and '80s.

Here's one of four drawers full of index cards.

Over 4,000 cards, each with a pattern sketch,

a name and the source.

Click on the box over in the left hand column to order BlockBase from Electric Quilt. They will pay the shipping right now.

The computer program includes over 4,300 patterns, all from published sources from 1836 to 1970. I use BlockBase in many ways but lately I have been doing a lot of block samplers with a theme. Last year I did a Block of the Week as a blog "Civil War Quilts." The theme was Civil War history and I tied a first-person account of the War's first year to a traditional block from BlockBase.
See it here: http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/

BlockBase has a Wildcard Search button which brings up any pattern name with a particular word. For the Civil War theme I typed in words like Union and North and South.

I used several of these patterns with Union in the name for the Civil War blog.

Once I found a block I liked I clicked on it and printed out a pattern.

This pattern was given the name Union Square in the Nancy Cabot column in the Chicago Tribune in the 1930s. I printed out the rotary cutting instructions for an 8" finished block and then put them on the blog post.

Here's the post:

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2011/04/18-union-square.html

Beginning September 1st I am going to do another Block of the Week. This year's theme is the Fight for Women's Rights so Wildcard words included choice, dream or girl.

I tried the word Grandmother and came up with 43 patterns with that word in the name. I selected Grandmother's Choice as the name for the blog and the logo.

Click here to see the blog---first block up on September 1st.
http://grandmotherschoice.blogspot.com/

I hesitate to tell you how easy this is in BlockBase because then you don't need a pattern designer. Anybody can work out their own theme quilts. Computers will put me out of work.

You might want to do the block of the month for your guild or your shop. Choose your state name. If it's California you have 19 blocks with that word in the name.

California---then there's Sacramento, Shasta, ocean, etc.

Any topic---how about birds

Here are a few of those with the word Bird in the name---and then you could search for geese, goose, sparrow and hen.

Here's a hint. I save those searches with the PrintScreen or screen capture key on my computer.  On my PC I hold down the Shift and the Ctrl buttons and then the PrtScrn key. I've made a copy of the entire screen. I save the screen image and copy it into an empty file. I use Photoshop but you can drop it into a new image in any picture program or a blank page in word.  I crop out what I don't need, give it a label and save it in my idea file.

Louise Townsend made the cover quilt from

blocks on the theme of "fairs"

Years ago I wrote articles for Quilters Newsletter on thematic designs like quilts for a wedding or for summer.  I'd have to spend a good deal of time reading through the paper alphabetic index in the back of my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. Now I find twenty blocks in a few seconds---one reason I do a Block of the Week rather than a Block of the Month. Too many ideas to edit it down to twelve.