More Breadcrumbs on the Trail

I had an eyebrow wax scheduled yesterday morning but got to town a bit early, so I popped into a nearby thrift store to check the craft section. They had a large bookshelf full of books. I’m trying not to add to my book collection, but I went and looked anyway. You never know.

My eyes lighted on the spine of this book:

“Hmmm,” I thought. “That’s the book mentioned on the patchpieces.com blog as having a Noon and Night quilt in it.” I pulled it off the shelf and looked at the table of contents. Sure enough, it was listed there as Original Star Quilt on page 72. I flipped to page 72 and found a pattern for the Noon and Night block and a quilt designed by Liz Porter and Marianne Fons based upon a vintage quilt that had been lent to them by its owner.

I wasn’t expecting to see a pattern; for some reason, the patchpieces.com blog made it sound like the block had been mentioned in passing with no other additional information. I paid for the book ($2.50) and went on my way.

When I got home, I read the entire pattern. Part of me is annoyed that the universe waited until I had worked out all of the math and cutting by myself before dropping this book into my lap, but part of me was quite pleased to see that my numbers and method are similar—although not identical—to that of the legendary Fons and Porter. (I like my method better, but that’s just me.) Interestingly, they have their pattern’s skill level listed as “challenging.” I haven’t assigned a skill level for my pattern yet beyond noting that it is “not for beginning piecers,” but “challenging” is not far off base.

The quilt in the book is done in 30s prints on a muslin background in a straight setting. I kicked around the idea of a muslin background but went with something else. And while a straight setting is easy, I still think that block needs some breathing room.

So. I am up to 16 blocks now. I am going to need somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-60 blocks for a twin size quilt depending on sashing and/or borders.

Joanna whipped up the first test block from my instructions:

Don’t you love the fussy cutting on that great Cotton + Steel fabric? This is the kind of block that looks great in both vintage and modern fabrics. Joanna also gave me lots of great feedback on the instructions. I am no novice when it comes to pattern writing, but quilting instructions are a bit different than knitting instructions. At least we know that my method for making this block is reproducible by someone other than me.

A cold front is supposed to move through today. Hopefully, it brings with it some rain, but if nothing else, the temperatures are supposed to moderate a bit. Tomorrow and Saturday will be cooler. I plan to spend a fair bit of time out in the garden this weekend, so today will be devoted to working on the pattern and making more blocks.