Innovative Sets

Modern Sampler by Leisel Rautenbach

You have 12 blocks. You could arrange them in asymmetric fashion.

Split Personality pieced by Audrie Bidwell

Thomas Knauer's design is always inspirational.

Jen Kingwell's Gypsy Wife

Quilts found on the web:

An interesting use of the negative space in a design.

Or you could go back on the grid.

Becky's Blue & Brown

Austen Family Album in Blue & Brown

 by Becky Brown

85-1/2" x 85-1/2"

Our master model block stitcher has finished one of her Austen sampler tops. Becky writes:  

The top is done - "I want it simple....put the blocks together with 1-1/2" sashings, so that it wouldn't get too big. 3" border around quilt."

And simple and elegant it is.

She used a variation of the Meryton set.

See more here and scroll down:

http://austenfamilyalbumquilt.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-official-set-simple-set-yardage.html

She kept the palette quite controlled and cool.

Lots of line---controlled line.

Fussy cutting the stripes added to the cool geometry.

Quite a visual success, don't you agree?

Here's the setting plan for a double bed-sized quilt.

36 blocks finishing to 12" square.

1-1/2" finished sashing and cornerstones

3" finished border

Revised Meryton set instructions for a smaller quilt:

Block 19 by Becky 

You need:

• 36 Pieced blocks finishing to 12" x 12"
• 25 Cornerstone squares to set between the blocks, finishing to 1-1/2" x 1-1/2"
• 60 Sashing Strips to frame the blocks, finishing to 1-1/2" x 12" rectangles.
• A single border finishing to 3" wide.

Cutting:
Sashing:

Cut 25 cornerstone squares 2" x 2".
Cut 60 Sashing Strips as rectangles 2" x 12-1/2".

Borders:
Mitered border corners: Cut 4 strips 3-1/2" x 86".
OR
Right angle border corners:

• Side Borders: Cut 2 strips 3-1/2" by 80"
• Top & Bottom Borders: Cut 2 strips 3-1/2" x 86"

The seam lines in her corners

Yardage:
I'd use the same yardage that EQ7 suggested for the larger sashing.

• 3/8 yard for the cornerstones
• 1-3/4 yards for the sashing strips

You can buy a little less yardage for the border: EQ7 says 2-1/8 yards if you piece the border.

If you use a chintz or stripe you will want to cut the borders as single strips and not piece them, so buy 2-1/2 yards. You may also want to use the same print as in the sashing strips.

Becky says: "Now it's ready for quilting, along with several others. ;-)"

Rietje is Finished

Rietje has posted  a photo of what looks to be a quilted and bound Austen Family Album. Finished!

She has set the 36 blocks side by side and framed it with a chain of squares pieced border.

I recolored her photo a bit but I still don't think the color is as pretty as it is in real life. The pictures she's taken of her blocks over the year reflect the color better, warm reds, pinks, browns and ivories.

Very romantic, sort of like an Austen novel.

And here's the back!!! Again I bet the photo is too brown.

See for yourself at her Flickr files.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/117106735@N07/

(She also has her Civil War BOM, Threads of Memory up there too.)

Congratulations on a lovely Austen quilt.

Pride & Prejudice Storybook Quilt

Regency Applique, in a redwork version. 

Quilt pattern inspired by Jane Austen's 

Pride and Prejudice

designed by Nancy Bekofske.

Lydia Bennet and two soldiers

The first version in applique

was inspired by 

Marian Whiteside Cheever's

Story Book Quilts. Nancy decided to illustrate her favorite book.

Regency Applique

Little Women quilt by Marion Cheever Whiteside

for Ladies' Home Journal, 1949

Nancy sells the pattern for her Regency Applique quilt,

in applique or embroidery. 

Mr. Collins introducing himself to Mr. Darcy

See the pattern at Nancy's Etsy store Rosemont Needle Arts:

 https://www.etsy.com/listing/159336566/regency-applique-a-quilt-pattern?ref=shop_home_feat_1

Mr. Darcy and the Bingleys

Nancy's been making the Austen Family Album blocks too.

Love her fussy cut floral that runs as a theme.

See Nancy's blog The Literate Quilter here:

http://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/

And read more about Marion Cheever Whiteside here:

http://www.quiltindex.org/journals/article.php?Akid=2-B-144

The Quilt Index site has digitized the 1995 article in the American Quilt Study Group's Uncoverings

"Marion Cheever Whiteside Newton: Designer of Story Book Quilts, 1940-1965" by Patterson, Naida Treadway, Volume 16, 1995, pages 67-94

Austen in Animal Prints

Denise in Texas

Lurking around our Austen Family Album Flickr page has provided some weekly drama.

We can thank Denise in Texas for much of it. What will she think of next?

She has an animal print theme going here.

See the Flickr page of Denise in Texas here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/116214226@N06/

Now the suspense is to see what her plans for setting are.

You may think that Jane Austen in a leopard-skin pillbox hat

is an anachronism 

but they had fake animal prints in Jane Austen's England.

Above: Swatches from an English sample book,

 about 1775, in the collection of the 

American Textile History Museum

And read more about animal prints in a post I did several months ago:
http://historicallymodernquilts.blogspot.com/2013/07/modern-print-monday-elsie-de-wolfe.html

A High Power Set for 36 Sampler Blocks

Austen Family Album Blocks by Denniele

Denniele is setting her blocks on the square in a grid of pieced sashing .With 36 large blocks, adding piecing to the sashing can make for a l-a-r-g-e quilt so she's pieced in a tiny teal strip for added interest.

Her fabric/color scheme is a limited palette:

one large floral, one minimal white print and two solids.

UPDATE: Denniele tells me the blocks were redrafted to

6 inches--so it won't be as large as I thought.

Sounds simple but she is using the fabrics in challenging combinations.

Blue-green and red are complementary colors, so work well together.

....But

they both have the same value.

Here I've eliminated the color. They are the same

shade of gray---which adds to the challenge.

She also designed a challenging set.

Block parts float in the background.

As Adair733 commented

"High Contrast = High Power. Wow"

See Denniele's Flickr page of Austen Family Album blocks here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/58240246@N07/sets/72157644301168681

See basic instructions for the straight grid set (The Meryton Set) here:

http://austenfamilyalbumquilt.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-official-set-simple-set-yardage.html

The Merryton Set

with two-inch sashing and a six-inch border

96-1/2" square.

AnnaMaria's plan. She has carried the sashing

into the border and then added a spacer border.

Here's a blog post on sampler set ideas:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2014/11/sampler-sets-in-traditional-fashion.html

Terry's is Quilted and Keeping Gigi Warm

Austen Family Album 

by Terry at Honas52

90" square

Terry sashed 25 blocks and got this finished, bound

and shipped off to her granddaughter.

The yellow is all in the pieced sashing and the border and

goes great with her blocks in reds and blues.

It's a clever sashing

And this is as much as I can figure out.

UPDATE: See Terry's explanation in the comments.

What is she planning for her other set of Austen Family Album blocks?

See her Flickr photostream here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/55917145@N08/with/15856887491