Passion for Prussian Blue: Free Pattern
Repro Block: By Ddwgram What's your favorite color? This week mine is Prussian blue!
Vintage quilt, date-inscribed 1850
Prussian blue dyed both the dark blue ground and the lighter shades in the figures above. The contrasting color was often a tan called buff.
It's not too late to get caught up in a mid-19th-century madness---160 years later.
Repro Block by Becky Brown Over at my
Civil War Quilts blog I'm doing a free online class in reproduction fabrics in the form of a QuiltAlong. Week 2 in
Stars in a Time Warp featured Prussian Blue.
http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2015/01/stars-in-time-warp-2-prussian-blue.html
Vintage quilt, 1840-1860
Prussian blue is a mineral dye that could color both figures and grounds a wide range of blue. In the 1840s and '50s there was a rage for bright blues in clothing and quilts.
Vintage block, mid-19th century
The other blue commonly seen in antique quilts is indigo blue, which generally lacked Prussian blue's brilliance.
Mid-19th-century quilt auctioned at Sotheby's Indigo is much more conservative in color.
Repro Block: Amy
Our virtual sewing group at
Civil War Quilts is doing great at picking reproduction prints.
Reproduction block by Anita Lozcalzo, made for a group project. Anita Lozcalzo loves Prussian blue too. Her exhibit
A Passion for Prussian Blue focuses on this brilliant dye. See it at the New England Quilt Museum before April 4, 2015.
http://www.nequiltmuseum.org/
Vintage quilt Prussian blue sashing was quite the thing in the 1840s & '50s.
Here's a detail of a vintage quilt from the NEQM show. The maker thought the Prussian blue sashing was so stylish she didn't need patchwork anywhere else.
Repro Block by VictoriaCarroll
Vintage quilt--Note the range of blues---blue-violet to almost green---dark blue to pale.
Repro Block: VictoriaCarroll
Vintage quilt piece from Rocky Mountain Quilts
Scroll down for an EQ7 pattern for a 45-1/4" square quilt of 6 inch blocks with 2" finished sashing. You could piece 25 Prussian blue stars into Prussian blue sashing.
Prussian blue reproduction from Union Blues, my current Moda collection. This print is #8298-14.
Sketch for a reproduction quilt echoing the decades 1840-1860.
I set the edge triangles with
Metropolitan Fair (#8232) I Photoshopped the reproduction stars above into the EQ sketch.. If that pink is tooooo much...
A light blue cornerstone might be calmer.
45-1/4" The Pattern from EQ7
EQ7 calculates your number of patches and yardage for you.
You Need: - 25 Star Blocks finishing to 6" (light gray above)
- 54 Prussian Blue Sashing Strips (dark blue above) cut to rectangles 6-1/2" x 2-1/2".
- 40 cornerstones (pink) cut 2-1/2" square.
- 12 edge triangles (medium blue). Cut 3 squares 9-3/4". Cut each into four triangles with 2 diagonal cuts.
- 4 corner triangles. Cut 2 squares 5-1/8". Cut each into two triangles with a diagonal cut.
Yardage EQ7 says you need
- Cornerstones: 3/8 yard
- Sashing Strips 1 yard
- Edge Triangles 5/8 yard
Then I tossed in a mitered border made from the
Metropolitan Fair stripe of a few years ago.
57-1/4" x 57-1/4" With a 6" finished border Readers' blocks, my digital sketching.
Any gorgeous Prussian blue repro would do.
57-1/4" x 57-1/4" With a 6" finished border
If you want to add a border you'll need 1-3/4" yards.
- Cut 4 strips for mitered borders 6-1/2" wide x 57-3/4" long.