Quiltmaker Block #261

QUOTE FROM MY FRIDGE:

“A WOMAN IS LIKE A TEA BAG; YOU NEVER KNOW HOW STRONG IT IS UNTIL IT’S IN HOT WATER”  Eleanor Roosevelt

                                    QUILTMAKER BLOCK  #261 Spinning Star

Around 1993, I spent a year in a study group based on Roberta Horton’s book An Amish Adventure.  At that time, for me the color gray was just gray.  After working with solid fabrics I realized that gray could appear slightly blue, green, purple or pink.  I learned that the Pennsylvania Amish used a palette of green to red with the neutral black.  Books on color call this an analogous color scheme meaning all of the colors are together on the color wheel.  Eliminating orange, yellow and yellow-green seems to make everything else go together.

When making quilt blocks, especially scrap blocks, the outline of the shapes is determined by value.  Value is the relative darkness or lightness of the fabrics.  I have found that using a wide range of values creates a clearer pattern.  If you want the star points to stand out use a very dark fabric with a very light.

For this project I have decided to use solid fabrics from the Pennsylvania Amish palette.  For such small pieces solids, tone-on-tones or very small prints work best for me.  This block requires four different fabrics.  I have chosen one very light green, a medium light green, a medium dark pink and a very dark burgundy.  This gives me four different values from two different color families.

PIECING

When possible I like to cut pieces larger than they need to be, sew,  and then trim the units to the exact size required.  This block uses 16 units with a finished size of 1 1/2″ (unfinished 2″).  I call these units Three-in-a-Square triangle units.

If you would like to use my method, all of the squares need to be cut 3″.  For instructions go to my webpage LynnRoddyBrown.com.  The opening page has two Quiltmaker magazine covers.  Click on the first (the one with green).  At the bottom of the left column click on “Making Triangle Units”.