Hospital Sketches: Sets, Borders & Buying Fabric

Another war; a different role

The 2019 B.O.M. here at Civil War quilts starts in two weeks.

The historical topic: Civil War hospitals

54" quilt with no borders

We will have nine floral applique blocks, one a month from January

through September, posted on the last Wednesday of each month.

There will be border suggestions too.

We designed the applique to fit in an 18" finished block"

Tighter in a 17-1/2" or 17" finished block if you want to use fat quarters for backgrounds.

More space around the applique in a 20" finished block.

Barbara pieced her backgrounds, each with four squares of light prints cut 9-1/2". The pieced four patch backgrounds finish to 18".

Our blocks will be nine of the most popular appliques used in album quilts in the years 1840-1865.

(Last year the B.O.M. here Antebellum Album was popular pieced album blocks.) There are many ways to set applique album blocks but the official set will be based on this idea of nine blocks with a directional flow.

Center of a quilt by Hannah Johnson Haines, 

Jay County, Indiana & Moline, Illinois.

Collection of the Rock Island County Historical Society, Illinois.

Recorded in the Illinois project and pictured in their book.

Xenia Cord gave a paper on this sampler design (Sampler #1) at last fall's AQSG meeting.
"Ohio, the Border State: A Regional Study of Vessel, Vine, and Floral Quilt Borders."

Another quilt with a similar set

Hannah Haines used only 3 different blocks. We'll do nine different blocks

 but they will each have a direction to them.

See posts on quilts similar to Hannah Johnson Haines's here:
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2018/02/nine-blocks-another-nine-block-pattern.html
https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2017/11/nine-blocks-same-nine-blocks.html

The Set & Border

Becky Brown and I may have the same initials but we have very different sewing styles (and skills.) I'm going for a simple border.

70" x 70"

I'm piecing my applique blocks side by side to give me a 54" finished patchwork field. I have a lot of leftover background scraps from cutting my background four-patches. (Next time I do this I am going to make the backgrounds finish 17" inches. It may seem like an odd number but you can get backgrounds from fat quarters and half yards with less waste.)

Anyway, I am taking that waste fabric and cutting it into rectangles 8-1/2" x 7-1/4" for a pieced border finishing to 8" wide.  See the plan. It says cut 32 rectangles. You need 4 squares 8-1/2" for the corners. We shall see how the plan works out and I will post pictures of my quilt as we sew along.

Becky, on the other hand, was quite taken with Hannah Johnson Haines's border, which Xenia
calls the Vessel, Vine & Floral Border. (She found 85 quilts with this border.)

We'll give you the pattern for that incredible border soon. 

Becky's colors and fabrics

Fabric Required for the Simple Border and 18" Finished Blocks:

Different backgrounds:

Buy 2/3 yard pieces. 5 of them. You get two 18-1/2" cut backgrounds from each. Use the leftovers for the pieced border.

Same background fabric:

Buy 2-3/4 yards of the background. 2 more yards if you want to do an 8" applique border. 

Becky did 20" finished blocks with more space around the applique.

For 20” Finished Blocks: 3-1/2 Yards.
Cut to 20-1/2”. This means you could get 2 blocks out of 2/3 yard fabric. (24” x 42”)

Barbara's fabrics

Fabric for the Applique:

I used scraps from my boxes of red, green, yellow and pink repro fabrics as I wanted an updated red and green applique look. I tried to use some of my smallest scraps in leaves and circles, etc. Very scrappy applique---particularly in the green calicoes.

Becky bought new hand-dyed fabric from Vicky Welsh's Colorways.

https://www.colorwaysbyvicki.com/#/

Read more about the fabrics here:

https://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2018/12/2019-bom-here-hospital-sketches-applique.html

She alternated two background colors in her blocks; pink as above and an aqua green. Her border background is a red. (You will have to see her quilt---the colors are edgy but work great.)

If I were buying fabric for a traditional applique look in the blocks I'd want a minimum of:

• 1 yard green
• 1 yard red
• 1/2 yard chrome orange (cheddar)
• 1/2 yard double pink

Janet Perkins is using traditional prints but stretching the boundaries.

For a scrappier look divide those requirements up---maybe 4 fat quarters of green; 5 wouldn't hurt.

Denniele's aqua solid for background

and various pastels for florals

Now, Denniele Bohannon is doing a small, simple version with parts of each block (Sprouts). You may want to do this faster, contemporary take where the blocks finish to 8" or 9" but the applique pieces are the same size as in the larger blocks---just fewer of them. You'll have to wait and see.

I've started a Facebook Page: Click here to join

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2152934498369880/

Ask to join and I'll let you in.

Post pictures, questions and ideas there.