Quilting Patterns. Methods of Stamping. Part 1

Old-time quilting patterns were few compared to the great number of designs for patchwork. About a dozen standard patterns, with their variations completed the list. Here they are: diamonds, shells or scallops, circles, ovals, cables, crescents, stars, hearts; leaves, running vines, tulips, roses, buds; pineapples, harps, birds, baskets, and feathers, feathers, feathers! The easiest pattern of them all was made of single lines running diagonally across the quilt. Diagonal stitching shows to better advantage than that running parallel with the weave. Too, the cloth is less apt to tear or pull apart than if the quilting lines are run in the same direction as the threads of the fabric. The single diagonal lines may be made in sets of two and three thus making the patterns called the double and triple diagonals. This is the first step toward ornamentation in quilting.

A further step was made when quilting lines crossed to form the diamond, or differently spaced, the "hanging diamond" or the "broken plaid." You can make any of these designs without a printed pattern adding them to the top after it is stretched firm and smooth in the quilting frame. For straight line quilting you can borrow an idea from the carpenter; use a cord lightly chalked fastening it in place tightly stretched. Let a second person snap the cord, it will fly back making a straight line that can be brushed off when no longer needed. One tradition was that a bride could snap her "Bride's Quilt" but that was all; she was not allowed to quilt it. Nowadays we use a yardstick or thinner strip that is perfectly straight, marking on either side to fill in such spaces as used to be "string snapped." In making the more complex designs with loops, circles and segments of circles it is easiest to buy a pattern. But if you try making one yourself use an improvised compass. This requires a pencil, pin and piece of twine. After determining the radius of the circle measure off the same distance along the twine from your pencil. Tie another loop and let the pin serve as the axis from which the circle radiates.

A plate or saucer will also do for marking round designs, and one common little pattern is called the "teacup border" where 3- inch circles make a continuing overlap. An easy way to make the shell pattern is to trace a row of half circles the desired size to a short strip of cardboard. With a pair of sharp pointed scissors cut around the tracing. This scalloped strip can be laid flat on the quilt and traced. One row completed, lay the strip close to the top of the first row, jogging the placing one half unit and repeating to fill any desired area. Close shell quilting is beautiful either for borders or background spaces. Larger shells make a favorite edge on a quilted puff or comforter and are nearly always used on the silk comfort that scallops around the edge, then reverses the scallop pattern to make the shells face in for half a dozen or more rows.