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.
