American Quilter - Winter 2001 - Page 2  

 
 
 

Gridding your pattern

>   The next task will be to mark a trial grid across copies of your pat­tern pieces. By
this time you will have already decided whether your blocks are going to be in straight sets (paral­lel with the bottom hem), set on point, or if you're just going to use a selected number of blocks in a panel across the garment.

      By this time you should also have decided on your block size and done thumbnail colorings to determine how your colors will move through the blocks. Your
grid will tell you how many blocks you need to make.

>  Blocks can be partially pieced and the
rest of the block filled in with "background" fabric. It is always better to have these background areas com­prised of a number
of different fabrics that are closely related in color (and possibly value), instead of one solid color fabric. Let's just say, for example, that your background is purple as shown in Fig. 5. To create interest, use many different fabrics in those areas. Some would be solid, some would be

  Fig. 1: Jacket Front  
  tone-on-tone, and some would have just a different texture. They would be in the same tonal family - but there would be enough variation to give those areas depth and interest.
     
  Step-by-Step1.

   1.    Let's say you have decided to do a vest using the simple Windmill and Outline block (see Fig. 2). I like this block because it is easy to do - especially when pieced over paper. I also like it because it can provide a very dramatic effect. You have decided to set this block horizontally. Next, you must measure the front and back pieces of your vest to decide how big to make each block. Sometimes, to accommodate a particular "set" you will have to adjust the block size.

   2.    The next thing to do is go to pen and paper, or to your computer, and do several different thumbnail colorings to work out your color way.  To get an idea of what
  color you want to use and in what parts of the block you want to use and in what parts of the block you want to use them, you will probably find that you won't need to color a whole page, maybe just 8 to 12 blocks (see Fig. 3).  In this case, every other block was rotated to get the pinwheel effect.

    3.    Next make a tracing paper copy of your pattern pieces an mark a grid on each (see Fig. 4).  In this case, six blocks fit across the back plus side seam allowance.  There will be eight rose, minus the "cut-out" areas for the armholes, neck opening, and shoulder slope.  To work out the actual coloring, make scaled down templates of your vest pieces.  Make sure that the proportions are accurate, then start placing the colored blocks to see what parts of the design need to be pieced in the background fabric (see Fig. 5).		  
Fig 2:  Windmill and Outline block.
 
 
 
 

Fig. 3:  Thumbnail coloring to work out color way for this block.
  American Quilters - Winter 2001
 
 

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Copyright  2006 Susan Deal Designs.  All rights reserved.
Revised: October 28, 2006.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
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