View from Sarah's Quilt Room: Patriotic Tribute

I actually drafted this post a couple days ago and called it something else. But since July 4th is so close I decided to rewrite it-kind of. I have been in such a funk for so long, (over a year), that I really have not felt like sewing much. I have had a lot happen to me the past year that I won’t go into now. And that is one reason I redid my sewing room to motivate me, and I think it has helped as I have been spending more time back here and I found things and I have definitely been re-inspired.

My Dear Jane® retreat group is working on a border robin. Several newbies wanted to do a round robin but did not feel comfortable working on others’ projects so we came up with a way for them to be able to achieve the effect and gain the skills for another time-maybe. We’ll see how this time goes. It will be their fabric choices and their workmanship, but they have to draw for the element what their round has to contain.

I decided to participate in this after just finishing a round robin with 6 others. (Why do I keep doing this to myself?) This is my finished top from that round robin. I would very much like to thank Paula, Mary Louise, Sarah, Sheila and Pat for making my center look so wonderful. This will have a Civil War toile on the back. My center was inspired from a Feathered Star quilt in the Virginia state book and I redrafted a block from Block Base to get exactly what I wanted.

For the individual border robin I decided I would try a miniature. Well, I fell way behind on my center. While redoing my room, I found an appliqué pattern I had prepared with freezer paper for machine appliqué. I decided I would make this block for my center for my border robin and try to catch up, but I hand appliquéd it instead. I have 4 rounds to do before I will be caught up. There is a total of 6 rounds plus the center.

I chose a very unusual pattern that a friend and I had noticed in a catalog from the 1950’s. Mrs. Scioto Danner had a home-based pattern business and I was lucky enough to track down a copy of her Prince’s Feather pattern before I found that her patterns were online. Thanks Peggy! You can find how to get it here. I adapted the pattern a bit to make it fill a 24” block a little better. You can contact me about my pattern if you are interested. You will need the original for the border pattern.

The original quilt is in the Denver Art Museum. It was made c. 1829 and traveled from Kentucky to California in 1853. I have seen the full quilt in only one catalog or book of the Denver Art Museum: Quilts and Coverlets and there is also a side (border) of it showing towards the back of The Quilt that Walked to Golden by Sandra Dallas.

The original is red, green and yellow solids on white and had 12 blocks, with a border that sort of echoes the block. I have plans to make 4 blocks of that color way. I have 1/2 block appliquéd by back basting. This particular is red, white and blue. I seem to be stuck on both those 2 color combinations. My DJ is red and green and my round robin, which I absolutely love, is too as you saw above. I decided, if I should draw Words, Script or Theme for a round, my words or theme will be something like “Founding Fathers”. So instead of calling this block Prince’s Feather, I would call it Princes’ Feather, a tribute to all the men who fought and founded our great nation.

Here is my block. I hope you enjoy it’s beauty as much as I do. I will be sure to post my finished project, as soon as I finish it. Hopefully that will only be months for a change.