Valuing Quilts

Lately (you can guess why), I've found myself sitting in bed in the morning, just not wanting to throw back the covers and get on with the day.  I was marooned out of state during the first two months of the pandemic in the U.S. (more on that another time), and when I got home, I was so intimidated by all the unfinished quilts lying around my sewing room that I just couldn't jump back in.

So I've found myself studying the quilt on my bed. It's from a block swap several years ago.  I added sashing and setting triangles, and multiple borders (five!!) in order to make the quilt fit our bed, a queen size with a very deep mattress and box spring.  Apologies in advance for the poor lighting, which makes the drab Civil War reproduction colors even drabber.  I'm so over them.

But we're here to talk about the blocks...  The twelve Churn Dash (aka Monkey Wrench) blocks in this quilt were each made by a different quilter, but all using the same block pattern and size and using a limited selection of fabrics.  Although I no longer enjoy the these fabrics, it's been interesting to see how different each block looks, differences attributable to the choices of fabrics.

In this block, because the inner corners of the half-square triangles (HSTs) and the inner rectangles around the center square are all dark, while the other fabrics are light, this block emphasizes the classic Churn Dash pattern.

On the other hand, in the block below, all the rectangles and the center square are dark and the HSTs are medium and light.  This arrangement of fabrics gives the impression of a light square in a medium square (like a square-in-a square unit) with a large plus sign completely overlapping both.

Here's another example of a "plus-in-a-square" block with the light and medium fabrics in the HSTs reversed.  This gives the block some interior movement, going from dark in the center out to the lightest colors.

And finally we have a "mini-plus," where the dark center fabrics don't reach all the way to the edge of the block.  Because all the fabrics that touch the plus are of medium value, and only the corners are light, there is even more of a square-in-a square effect.

What's nice in this quilt is that you don't get a sense of the same block marching by, row after row.  By the way, do you know the trick of determining the value of your fabrics when selecting them for a project?  You don't need to go buy those rose-colored glasses that are marketed to quilters.  Just grab your phone and snap a pic of your fabrics together.  Then bring the picture up in your photo app and set the color setting to mono (black and white).  It's a great way to figure out the value of some of your more challenging fabrics!

I'm finally back at the machine, so I'll be posting more soon.  See you then!