Quilt Pattern: Road to California

The Road to California smacks of the gold rush and first railroads dating back to the forty-niners at least. It is an easy quilt to piece and quite effective, too, in old gold print with unbleached muslin. This is also a very good pattern in which to use odd scraps of material, setting them together with alternate plain squares so the dark band with triangle follows diagonally across the quilt one way, and the small dark squares do the same thing in the opposite direction. Surely the Road to California must have had many by-ways leading therefrom!

Each block is 12 inches square, really a nine-patch made of five small blocks A with four B. Cutting patterns are made of cardboard from the ones here given. These do not allow for seams if making a 12-inch block.

Material Estimate: If you make your quilt six blocks wide by seven blocks long it will finish 72x84 inches. By setting together with alternate white blocks you will have 21 pieced blocks and 21 plain. It will require 2 1/2 yards of print and 6 yards of white material.

Snowflakes or a Horn of Plenty would make attractive quilting patterns for the plain blocks.