$22.00

This quilt features the not-so-familiar Salt Lake City block with its important center square that provides area to highlight a special fabric. I’ve long wanted to make a quilt featuring this block to honor my Mormon pioneer ancestors, especially my great-great grandfather who entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, just two months after Brigham Young’s original pioneer company arrived. They arrived to nothing but mountains and desert, and within a couple years and after a lot of hard work they made the valley “blossom as a rose”. 

     This traditional block has many possibilities for fabric and value placement. Each block can be made from 3, 4 or 5 different fabrics (I used 4 fabrics in each of my blocks). According to Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Quilt Patterns, the magazine publisher Vickery and Hill probably offered the Salt Lake City block pattern by mail order in one of their publications between 1895 and 1930.

     I have made three variations of this quilt; a "planned scrappy" version in a limited color scheme of red, white and aqua (measures 69-1/2" x 84-3/4" when finished), a "coordinated scrappy" version using fabrics from the same fabric line (Circa 1934 fabrics by Cosmo Cricket for Moda - measures 61-1/2" square when finished), and a "make-do scrappy" version from a variety of traditional fabrics and scraps (measures 63-3/4" square when finished).

     I added sashing between the blocks in each version. Not only does it further represent Salt Lake City’s street grid system that Brigham Young used when he laid out the city, but it also simplifies assembling the quilt because you won’t have to do a lot of extra pinning to match points to points on all sides of the blocks.

Supplies: Kit fee: $9 for pattern, includes instructions for all three versions plus three photos; sewing machine, basic sewing and rotary cutting supplies. 

Fabric: Detailed list sent upon registration.

Optional supplies: Fit to be Geese 6-1/2" ruler by Open Gate quilts; Judy Martin's Point Trimmer ruler; 12-1/2" square ruler