Have you seen the July/August 2021 issue of McCall’s Quilting magazine? It contains oodles of lovely projects perfect for summer sewing. And there are interesting quilt-y articles as well. Beginning on page 22, you will see my queen size quilt, “Jacob’s Nine-Patch.”
In a call for quilts, McCall’s editors asked for quilts that utilized different types of fabrics. While they probably meant “corduroy, seersucker, silk, and wool,” my brain wondered if 1930s reproduction fabrics could be successfully combined with vibrant, contemporary batiks. My idea was accepted, and I requested “General Store” fabric as well as yellow and blue batiks from Connecting Threads.
As for the design, here is the back story. About twenty years ago, in a guild meeting in Leavenworth, Kansas, a quilter showed a patchwork quilt that really caught my eye. After I complimented her on the design, she pointed out that it was “just a Jacob’s Ladder design with Nine-Patches instead of Four Patches.” Ah, ha! (This was prior to the invention of cell phones with cameras, so I am relying on my memory – I think her triangle squares were black and white, and the Nine-Patches were colorfully scrappy.) Fast forward twenty years, and I finally made a variation of my fellow guild member’s Jacob’s Ladder variation by alternating Ladder blocks with Star blocks.
I am pleased with the results of my fabric experiment. The batiks add a glow to the quilt without overpowering the small vintage style prints. As my thrifty grandma would have done, I pieced the Nine-Patch border with a mixture of prints, alternating dark and medium values. Finishing the quilt with blue paisley batik adds a vivid yet quieting frame, giving our eyes a place to rest from all the print-happy busyness.
Are you brave enough to mix different styles of fabric? Like Civil War reproduction with “grunge”? Or juvenile prints with shirtings? Or sweet florals with bouncy polka dots? I dare you!