Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Quilt Guild Block of the Month Programs


First three Westering Women blocks by Barbara S.

Sheila in Nova Scotia wrote the other day:
"Would it be okay if our quilt guild used the Westering Women Block of the Month as our Guild BOM starting in September? I am the program director for our small guild and I am planning on doing a BOM starting in the fall and I think this would be perfect, however I would like your permission to do so.
I would direct them to your blog to retrieve the patterns and there will most likely be around 30 members who would participate or hoping for even a few more .
Regards ,
Sheila for the Thistle Quilt Guild"
I was glad to give her permission and I'm taking this opportunity to give all of you guild members permission to use these series Block of the Month programs that I post.

Barb V is making them 9 inches.

I leave the posts up there so they are relatively easy to access. I've created a Pinterest page which gives you links to the various topics and posts.
https://www.pinterest.com/materialculture/free-historical-bom-bow-from-barbara-brackman/


Brenda just finished her Threads of Memory top.
A link to the blocks:

I'm happy to have guilds use them for their non-commercial purposes. I post these without charge for two main reasons. One is to give people ideas for using reproduction prints.

Madison by Jean Stanclift
from Threads of Memory

The other is to give quilters an accurate history of needlework. I'm interested in history framed in the broader context of women's history, western American history and particularly Civil War history. I spent several years working for museums in the public outreach and education department.

Rochester by Becky Brown
Each of the twelve stars in Threads of Memory
tells a true tale of the underground railroad and
escape from slavery.

 What better way to teach history than with quilt patterns?

Kathie's Threads of Memory

So do feel free to use the Block of the Month designs I've posted. I've also done several Block of the Weeks----a little much for a guild, but you could pick twelve favorite posts and give the members links to those.

Reitje's Austen Family Album - 36 blocks
for fans of Jane Austen and Regency history.

As Sheila suggests the guild just needs to provide a link to the post. The instructions are up there on the cloud (with corrections and suggestions from past block makers).
Here's a Pinterest page with links to lots of posts from Austen Family Album. Scroll down to the bottom. (Pinterest always starts at the bottom and works its way up to the top.)
https://www.pinterest.com/source/austenfamilyalbumquilt.blogspot.com

Becky Brown, Grandmother's Choice
49 blocks on the history of the women's rights movement.

For fabric and color inspiration you'll find models by Becky, Dustin, Bettina and others who have helped me out.

Grandmother's Choice by Mary & Martha Tours

Pick a dozen.

I realize there are guild members who have no computer access so if you must---print out the directions for them. We can hope a BOM may be incentive for learning how to access patterns on the internet.

And do send photographs of quilts in progress and finished.


We'll be starting a new Block of the Week for 26 weeks in 2016 soon on my Material Culture blog page:
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/
Look for the first post about a William Morris tour of England on May 7th.

7 comments:

Barbara said...

Good Morning, Barbara! Thanks for sharing my Westering Women blocks. Looking forward to next Wednesday's post :)

suzanne said...

Yeah, new block-of-the-week! Keep 'em coming. And that Becky Brown block, OMG, sooooo nice. I'm going to print it out and pin it up for inspiration.

Jacqueline said...

You are talented and generous beyond words. Thank you for your sharing of knowledge and patterns and fabric ideas.

Rina Spina said...

Thank you for this journey in to the life of all this pioneer women!
We don't have any tradition about quilting here in Italy, but I'm fascinated about the history that is beyond every quilt. I'm in this wonderful voyage, and I have already finish my third block.
Thank you again to les us be part of this story.
Rina, from Catania, Italy.

Sheila said...

Thank you for granting permission for our guild , we really appreciate it . I love history and this is a great way to learn about the women of years ago ☺

Annette said...

Thank you Barbara for your wonderful blog and your generosity!

Unknown said...

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Shamim