slfinnell

Letter M for Milky Way/AtoZ 2019

The April A to Z Challenge is in its tenth year, I’ve now participated for 6 of those years, and this year will be my 3rd quilt theme. It’s my first quilt using only patterns from the Kansas City Star newspaper archives. Welcome to my blog!

  • Vintage MIlky Way quilt from Star Quilts
    Vintage MIlky Way quilt from Star Quilts
  • Milky Way as in KC Star 1930
    Milky Way as in KC Star 1930

If you’re making a whole quilt of this block you may notice that you need to alternate the middle block or ‘star’ from lights to darks to get the desired results. But for this challenge, I needed only to create the one block.

Strip Piecing
Half-square Triangles
blocks ready to combine

Above you’ll see the yellow and white half-square triangle. In whole quilts that would need to alternate as a blue and white color scheme. (refer to quilt picture above)

  • Last Seam
    Last Seam
  • Milky Way Layout
    Milky Way Layout

Essentially, you have a 9-patch block here. Sewn in 3 rows and finally attached with 2 long seams.

Milky Way Block Completed
Milky Way Block Completed

Did You Know?

In keeping with the era of the 1930’s I’m sharing with you about an astronomer, Robert Julius Trumpler today. He revealed that the size of the Milky Way Galaxy was off. And give us the ‘real’ map of stars and clusters, a way was needed to get a view through that dust. The tool itself wasn’t invented until the 1950’s but, “Thank You!” Trumpler for paving the way!!

Come back here tomorrow for another quilt block for the A to Z Challenge! Also be sure to visit the home of the A to Z here and see other entrants challenge posts. There are excellent writers participating every year with topics in whatever you’re interested in

15 comments

  1. The vintage Milky Way looks just like -or at least similar to- the Virginia Reel pattern. I was just reading about that pattern the other day but I can’t remember where I saw it. The writer was making the point that practically EVERY state has a Virginia Reel pattern that goes by a different name. Anyway, looking at that pattern and then the KC Milky Way made me aware of how just switching up the colors of the small squares creates a totally different look. I’m sure that is probably true of many patterns.

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  4. I love those old quilt patterns. Not that I quilt them myself, but I admire them. I have a 1930’s quilt top hanging as my curtain above my desk (with a dark heavy sheet behind it to keep the sunlight off the back.) I especially love the old blocks with feed sack pieces.
    Thanks for sharing your beauty.

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    • That’s so nice of you! I have to give credit to my mother and grandmother who spent much time in my childhoodthroughteens tutoring me. Hope I’ve helped you learn more about your quilts 🙂 and thank you so much for visiting.

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