Postage Stamp Quilt Blanket

This blanket was intended as a tribute to a classic Amish quilt with a special note of thanks to the U.S. Post Office.

In 2001 the U.S. Post office issued this series of stamps commemorating the Amish quilt.  I thought that they were all incredible but was particularly drawn to the quilt that reflects a very "pin loom" flavor.

Over the next nine months or so I wove and constructed my Postage Stamp Blanket. As with the Amish Bars blanket, they are not lined or quilted, the weigh of the woven fabric is quite warm enough without extra layers.

This blanket is close to six foot square.

Here is the beginning of those middle squares, made with one 4"x 4" square and topped with two light blue squares, whip stitched in place.

The blanket was made with 2" x 2" squares, 2" x 4" squares, 4" x 4" squares, 2" x 6" squares, 4" x 6" squares, and 6" x 6" squares. Most of those looms were Weavette Looms, which came out with all six sizes.

It uses three shades of green for the 2" line around the 9 square design, 3 shades blue plus a slate blue and a very dark navy blue. Plus the red.

All of the woven pieces in the blanket were finished with a single crochet edge in the same color, then whip stitched to join. You might notice that the small squares above do not have a crochet edge, that was so that they would sit within the dimensions of the 4" x 4" square.

Below the middle panel is finished, I'm working on the panels to the right and left.

When a blanket gets this big it is amazing how many rectangles are needed for the border!

           A just-finished blanket. The edging is a line of half double crochet in navy.

This is a later pattern for the blanket with a few proposed color variations.  This Amish pattern lends itself to a number of colorways.

Have fun with this. If anyone decides to make a new version of the blanket, I would love to see the results!  MS

Amish Bars pin loom blanket

Winter is a great time to work on really big pin loom projects. After months of weaving the separate squares there comes a point where the project needs to be assembled. What better time than when the days are short and it feels great to hold a lap full of blanket?

This is one my favorite Amish quilt design patterns. I believe that the Amish quilt is one of the preeminent gifts of American crafts and design. I have been able to reflect this design style into a number of woven blankets. These blankets are not quilted, but like all pin loom work, they are pieced.

 The Amish Bars pattern calls for a few colors with large swathes of black running through it. In order to express the original color variation brought about through the use of a variety of pieced cloth, I purposefully changed colors several places.  This also adds some tension to the design, keeping it from being too rigid.

The Amish Bars blanket in the sample shown here was constructed with 120 - 4" x 4" squares and 64 - 4" x 6" rectangles. Each square and rectangle was finished with a single crochet edge and the pieces were joined with a whip stitch.


Squares needed to complete this blanket:

(80) 4" x 4" square - charcoal or black
(24) 4" x 6" rectangle - charcoal or black

(32) 4" x 4" square - green
(4) 4" x 4" square - alternative green
(8) 4" x 6" rectangle - green
(2) 4" x 6" rectangle - alternative green

(4) 4" x 4" square - red
(20) 4" x 6" rectangle - red
(10) 4" x 6" square - alternative red

Yardage requirements for weavies with single crochet edge and yarn for joining:
Black or charcoal yarn - 1160 yds.
Green yarn  - 440 yds.
Alternative green yarn - 70 yds.
Red yarn - 340 yds.
Alternative red yarn - 150 yds.

You can find the yardage requirement for most of the popular pin looms on the Pin Loom Essentials page.