Schoolhouse Quilts

It seems that the old favourite, the schoolhouse block, is enjoying a great return to the spotlight of late.  I have noticed it being done in miniature on a number of blogs, in particular some lovely ones being done by Frances.  I have to admit it has never been my favourite block.  However, a few years ago my patchwork group had a schoolhouse block trade.  Not wanting to appear a piker, I joined in the fun.  There were several groups of eight.  The brief was simple - each group had a certain background fabric, and the block was to be foundation pieced using a red/blue/green colour scheme [the pattern was supplied, along with the required colour placement].  We all purchased our fabric at a local store, made eight 12 inch blocks, kept one of our own, and received a block from each of the other seven participants.   I have tried to share a photograph of my finished quilt.  It is quite long, and difficult to capture properly.

I did want to make a quilt of some substance, and I really don't like different blocks abutting one another, so I chose to work other blocks with a different design.  The one I chose was taken from a Judy Martin pattern book, and called Teacher's Pet [quite appropriate I thought].  It was given in a 14 inch pattern, so I added borders to the schoolhouse blocks to bring them up to that size.  This photograph shows the block I made, ie my choice of fabrics.  Unfortunately, at the time of the initial fabric purchase, I did not have a plan for my quilt, so the fabrics I used in the alternate blocks are a little different.

I wanted to add sashing between the blocks, so as to give myself some added width and length.  I also needed another colour for the star blocks, so chose to use a golden yellow.  This block was also foundation pieced, which made rather a neat job of all adjoining points.

The quilt is what I call 'king single' size.  I quilted it myself on my domestic sewing machine, much of it straight line, with a little close stippling on one of the borders.  I used a patterned wideback fabric for the backing. 

I quite enjoyed the challenge of using a block that wasn't up my alley, as well as doing the maths in order to incorporate the two blocks, with sashing and borders, into a useful quilt.  Now I'm looking forward to the day when I actually have a king single bed on which to use the quilt, instead of it being packed away in the linen cupboard.