Wheel of Fortunel Block Pattern
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Sponsors New Quilts from an Old Favorite Reliability by Design Wheel of Fortunel Block Pattern The Wheel of Fortune (wheel with spokes) quilt block is a simple nine The Contest patch that contains an interesting (and often forgotten) patch. That The New Quilts from an Old Favorite contest and exhibition was created patch is often referred to as a three-quarter square triangle unit as it by The National Quilt Museum to pay tribute to our quiltmaking heritage, contains three triangles that fill a square. The patch uses both a half while celebrating the innovation, creativty, and excellence of today’s quilt- square triangle and two quarter square triangles which make up the er. This contest and exhibition challenges quilt artists to interpet a single final patch. traditional quilt block in a work of their original design. There is really nothing difficult in the construction of this quilt block so The contest requires all quilt entries to be recognizable in some way as it is a good choice for beginner quilters. Color choices can make a big a variation on the year’s selected traditional block. The quilts must be no difference in the final effect, depending on whether you choose a light larger than 80” and no smaller than 50” on a side, plus each entry must be or dark background fabric for the block. quilted; submitted by the artist(s); and completed after December 31st of two years prior to the entry date. The pattern seems to be from the last half of the 19th century, and it was not seen before the Civil War although there are others kinds of Quilts are juried into the competition based on technique, artisty, and wheels like Mariner’s Compasses & Sunflowers. Once they got popular interpretation of the theme block. The accepted quilts are then sent to the there were lots of variations and the patterns varied from four spokes museum for a panel of three judges to evalute them on design, inovation, to forty. theme, and workmanship. The winners are selected, notified and awarded a cash prize. Plus all the winning and finalist quilts are included in the exhi- The Wheel of Fortune was often used as a signature quilt, a fundraiser bition. or memory quilt. Marie Websiter, Influential quilt designer of the early 1900’s, was often noted as the original source for pattern names, as The New Quilts from an Old Favorite 2020 exhibition is at The National Quilt illustrated in her 1915 book with the quilt she called Wheel of Fortune. Museum from July 10 through October 6, 2020. It will also travel for two Most of them seem to date from about 1880 to 1950. The pattern had years to other venues around the country. The competition will take a year a real revival after 1930 when people called it Dresden Plate. off in 2021, only to return in 2022 with a redesigned format. Check out the museum’s website to download the NQOF 2022 brochure: https://quiltmu- Quilt patterns were no doubt passed on from on generation to the next seum.org/education/contests/new-quilts-old-favorites/ and one woman to the next, but as families moved, their environments and circumstatnce changes, as can be seen in the names of quilts. That is why one quilt pattern can have so many names, and sometimes one name is applied to several different patterns. References: Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns by Barbara Brackman Garden to Quilt: Flowers and Trees in American Quilts by Gwen Bruno Patchworksquare.com Color My Wheel Barbara Harrell — Waddell, AZ Materials: This was all about having fun and solving the puzzle of the quilt. I like the challenge of the 100% cotton design, drafting, color choices, using my stash, sewing, designing the quilting and the actual fabric, 80/20 quilting. I still dislike the cutting even with all the new toys out there to help. Hobbs batting Techniques: I made my first quilt in 1973 after sewing garments since I was 12. The design is still decent machine pieced, but, oh, the construction leaves a lot to be desired. When my Mom retired in the early 80’s appliquéd and and I had just had our first son, my Mom got me hooked on quilting. Mom loved the history quilted of quilting and the reasons quilters used the colors they did. I am sure I frustrated her with Size: 62” x 62” my color choices and attitude towards these old designs. My first log cabin had red centers with orange and blue. Mom quickly came over to my side of thinking, realizing it is her creation not a history project. Those quilts have been made, now make your own! When I first showed this quilt to my quilt group, those that don’t know me marveled that these fabrics were from my stash. Little do they realize how much I like fabric and color. All my fabric is stored by color on a shelving unit. I do have a couple of self-imposed rules about purchasing fabric: 1. the fabric must fit on the shelf with its color friends and 2. Shelving units are adjustable. When picking fabrics for a project I usually start with the largest quantity needed and use that as my jumping off point. However, with this quilt I knew I wanted a touch of yellow. It isn’t my favorite so I don’t have a lot and I tend to buy yellows that lean to the gold or orange as you can see in this quilt. Once these were picked it was just choosing what played well with others. I had originally hoped to draft this using EQ8, but discovered I couldn’t change a block with curved lines into a quilt (fine print part). I ended up purchasing a roll of brown shipping paper. Using string, a pencil, protractor and yard stick you can accomplish a lot. I did use EQ8 to create the oval Wheel of Fortune blocks in the spokes and the wheel. I measured the length of the spoke and used the width at the half way point of the length. That created my distorted ovals, same process on the wheels. Now that I had my pattern how do I put it together? Again, it was the puzzle part that I love. I had just been to the Fall AQS Paducah show and saw Cynthia England do a lecture on her freezer paper method. I was sure I could use this knowledge to put this together. I do remember her saying you needed straight lines for the process – she is right! I ended up cutting oversized fabric pieces for each tiny template and carefully pressing the curve under the template instead of over the freezer paper. It got quicker as I went. I machine appliquéd FIRST PLACE the curve to its corresponding template, trimmed and pieced. I figured 3 hours per oval. It was a blast from beginning to end. My Mom has been dead for 23 years and I still think of her every time I quilt! It is important to enjoy your passion and those that inspire it. 4 New Quilts from an Old Favorite: Wheel of Fortune 2020 The National Quilt Museum 5 Fortuna – Roman Goddess of Jean Brueggenjohann — Columbia, MO Chance and Fortune Materials: Commercial One of my favorite things about quilt making is using traditional blocks in cotton, Ombre, gold a contemporary way, but I had no history with the featured block, Wheel lamé, sparkly tulle, glass of Fortune. Because I had never made the block, it opened the door to beads, Swarovski crystals; gold charm, gold chains, possibilities. embroidery floss, purchased First, I researched. I knew the wheel of fortune tarot card, but I did not know leaf trim the Roman goddess, Fortuna. I found reading about her fascinating and Techniques: machine pieced thought I could illustrate her attributes and also add to them. And, the more I borders & blocks, machine (stationary) quilted, hand & thought about her the more she became. machine appliquéd, hand Fortuna was the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck and life’s embroidered, knife edge binding capriciousness. She held the scales, as does Lady Justice and she was the goddess of fate. She was bountiful and emblematic of change, prosperity or Size: 58” x 71” disaster. I gave her an attitude. She has a contrapposto stance, like classical depictions of ancient figures to illustrate a dynamic yet balanced and harmonious posture. She has the tall slender body of a supermodel and all that entails. She is wearing a Roman toga made of aboriginal Australian fabric. She has an immense Latin halo and she stands firmly in the Seven Hills of Rome. She holds the earth and sea in her halo with the green and blue wheel of fortune block and Las Vegas in her red and gold halo. She is a play of contrasts. She is Christian symbolism yet she is pagan. She is ancient, but contemporary. I enjoyed working on this quilt. It had an immense process and required problem solving, which made it very interesting to me. My favorite thing about this quilt is that it embodies the cult figure, Fortuna and brings her forward as a contemporary woman. She is in charge and I liked bringing out her persona. The name Fortuna finds its root in the Latin fero, meaning “to bring, win, receive or get.” Fortuna is SHE WHO BRINGS. SECOND PLACE 6 New Quilts from an Old Favorite: Wheel of Fortune 2020 The National Quilt Museum 7 A Fortune in Diamonds Susan Mogan — Mobile, AL Materials: Several years ago, our local art quilt group made small quilts utilizing the Japanese Commercial cottons, concept of Notan, which is the principle of dark and light.