Union Blues on Parade

I saw this utilitarian four-patch comforter in an online auction a few months ago.

It probably dates to about 1910

when this blue palette of shirting stripes was popular.

The patchwork was simple---yet complex----

One of the things I really like about quilts.

You almost dismiss a quilt like this because it's so plain, but the shading of the blues and the intriguing pattern make you look a little longer. It's always fun to figure out how the unknown quilter got the effect.

I figured out her pattern. It's a strip quilt alternating

pieced strips with narrower, dark unpieced strips.

I found it in my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns as a strip quilt #484.

The reference there was to a 1970s newspaper column in the Baldwin Telegraphics

where it was called Garden Path.

Here's the same pattern from about 1900, but shaded

differently.

It's not quite as effective as the first example, due to

the shading. Maybe the alternating unpieced strips are too wide.

Here's a different way to shade it. 

The quilt is from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.

And a  mid-century modern version.

I like the orderliness of the blue one at the top---like soldiers on parade, as in this sketch of Union troops in New York.

Perfect for the prints in my Union Blues collection.

The range of shades is similar to the vintage quilt.

Here I've drawn the design out in EQ7 to use 5" cut squares for the four-patches (Square B): the Charm Pack pre-cuts.

Click on the pattern above, save the image to a Word for JPG file and print it out.

The four-patches (Piece B) finish to 9" square and are set with pieced triangles.Piece A is cut 7-5/8" square and then sliced to make 4 triangles.

These go between the four-patches.

Make four patches till you're tired of them. Set them with the pieced triangles like this.

Set them into strips.

Be sure the light squares are going

up and down.

Send me pictures.