 |
| Mildred's block |
 |
| My block |
Block 12- the Lamp
When the lamp block was made the quilt club members had
finished twelve, or just half, of the alphabet quilt blocks. Nancy had omitted
X and Z. this gave her exactly 24 blocks for the child’s quilt. Joan thought
that the quilt was a long time in the making, but Aunt Nancy explained that one
block a week was all most mothers had time to make. Sometimes Nancy feared that
Joan would wear out the finished blocks because she handled them so often and
patted them and told stories about them.
The lamp which Nancy had chosen was like th round and chunky
lamp which Joan had in her own bedroom. It had a familiar look to the child.
She appreciated the lamp with bed-time stories and Aunt Nancy had to suspend
all work on the quilt until she had taken Joan into her arms and told her a
story about a wonderful lamp owned by a man named Aladdin.
When the story was done Joan ran away contentedly and Aunt
Nancy started on the block.
She cut the newspaper square and also a square of white
cloth. This soft white gingham was exactly one-quarter inch larger on all sides
than the paper square. By placing the cloth on the paper pattern and holding
the two of them flat against the window pane, Nancy was able to outline the
letter and the lamp with a sharp pointed hard lead pencil.
When this was done she pasted the paper square onto a sheet
of lightweight cardboard or tag board.
This was dried under pressure. Then when thoroughly dry the
shade and base were cut from the paper.
These were laid on fast color cloth. Nancy used a small
flower print for the shade. The base was of plain material. She chose the same
shade of green as she was using for her connecting strips.
In cutting the cloth she allowed one-quarter inch on all
sides for turning under. After turning the edges under, she basted and pressed
them. Then she pinned them in place over the outlines on the square of white
cloth. She basted them and then appliquéd them with fine slanting, invisible
hemming stitches. The base went on first. Then the shade was appliquéd.
The chain was put in next. French knots made the chain and a
small round in satin stitch the little ball at the end of the chain. She used
yellow for this.
The letter “L” was next worked. Nancy had been using a fine
outline stitch, although some of the members chose a close chain stitch.
Whichever one is used must be close and heavy.
This completed the twelfth block. Now the members joined the
L to A and E strip. The J was joined to
the B and F strip, the K to the C and G strip and the L to the D and H
strip. They used the strip of color, 1 ½ inch by 6 ½ seamed between two white
strips of equal size. This large strip was them seamed between two large white
blocks with the appliqué figures on them.
No attempt was made to put in the long strips which extend
in an unbroken line from top to bottom of the pieced part of the quilt. They
were put in when the 24 blocks were completed
I know where my 30's fabrics are and I might cave before I get some other stuff finished. ;)
ReplyDeleteGo for it Beth! They are easy ones.
Delete