Morrell Quilt Requirements

Di Ford Hall recreated the Sarah Morrell Album Quilt in 2004. Everyone making the quilt must have their own pattern. Patterns can be purchased from threadbear  in Australia and sentimental stitches in the USA. It is quite a large pattern with full sized diagrams and detailed instructions.

•  Start with 30 cm or 1/3 yard of about 12 fabrics of the colours of your choice
• Vary the scale of the prints for interest and think about fussy cutting. 
• Add more fabric as required.
• Fabrics suitable for Broderie Perse. 
• Choose prints which have a similar colour background to your main background colour.
• Quantities will depend on the repetition of the print. 
• 7 m or 7 1/2 yards main background fabric 
• 20cm or 1/4 yd of one fabric for central border
• 20cm or 1/4 yd of 4 prints the same coloour and similar colour value for the outer pieced border
• backing, batting, binding.

Di Ford Hall likes to recreate antique quilts in a controlled scrappy colour pallet. She recommends choosing four colours for the quilt. Then you choose many different values of the four main colours. This will explain why I have always had trouble with colour. I often chose only three or tried to use too many colours. Scrappy works best when there are lot of different fabrics within the chosen pallet. I will be using reds, blues, browns and golds. I am using this panel for the broderie perse and pulling colours from this for the blocks.
So far, all my fabrics are French General by Moda. I may add more as I get going.

 So, no greens, no oranges, no purples. I had a fat quarter bundle called Rambling Rose that is absolutely delicious, but it had a teal in it that does not go with the blues above.

Blessings,
Chris

Sarah Morrell Album Quilt

 In her 2001 publication The Art of the Quilt, Ruth Marler writes:

"This quilt is made of cotton with signatures of ink with cotton embroidery, and bears the name "Sarah Morrell" in the center medallion. The combination of the central medallion with pieced blocks and a saw-tooth border on three sides of the quilt all corroborate the assumed date of this piece, around 1843. Fifty-eight people, both male and female, signed the quilt but as yet no definite ties have been established between the signatories. This quilt is predominantly red and white with each block different. However, despite the wide range of blocks incorporated, the overall design is well balanced with pieced blocks alternating with those of cut-out chintz. The use of a double saw-tooth border around the central medallion and around the majority of the pieced blocks serves to link the main part of the quilt with what was originally a red saw-tooth border."

The original quilt is height 93 1/4" width 95 1/4".
It was a gift of Jeremy L. Banta, 1986. 

The Sarah Morrell Quilt Journey Has Begun

I know I am a bit crazy, but it is so easy to start a new blog and so today I started a new blog. 

I was first introduced to the Morrell Quilt by  Carole from Wheels on the Warandyte Bus Blog. 

Two years ago, I bought the pattern from threadbear in Australia. 

It is also available in the USA from sentimental stitches.

And since I am a bit crazy, I started the quilt last week at the Just Takes 2 Quilting Retreat in Shipshewana Indiana.

I had read over the pattern instructions a few times to get an overall picture of how this thing will go together. There are a lot of techniques I could use. Using EQ7, I drafted out several of the blocks that have those fancy dancy saw-toothed borders. These blocks all finish at 10 inches so I printed off my foundation patterns onto A4 paper which is a bit longer than the letter size we use here in Canada. My logic here is that no less than 8 blocks, the center medallion and the outside borders are these similar triangles. I like logic. I will do each of them in a different colour, mostly reds. When did I decide that I like reds?

I purchased a few fat quarter bundles a year ago for this from Crafsty when they had an insane flash sale.
French General by Moda. I love love love doing hand applique with these fabrics. I pre-washed the reds a couple of weeks ago and will do the blues soon. We are on a well here at the Farm and had to put in a brand new pump and tank so there is still a bit of sand in my hard water that we share with 120 Guernsey cows.

 And I found these Winterthur Museum panels for the broderie perse applique. At this point, I am planning to fuse this and do a  machine applique stitch.

This block is so similar to the  chester criswell quilt.
So, I started here since it was easy. I like easy. But I also like a challenge.

Morrell Block # 18

 I make no promises to set a pace a certain number of blocks per week or month. There is a facebook group that I belong to that is doing a quilt along with three blocks per month. That certainly is doable. But I am a bit crazy.

Blessings,
Chris