Size Does Matters: The UrbanAmish Core, Central Concept

The first block below represents an Indian Hatchet block 4" square finished size. This is the typical size given for the traditional version of this block.

The second block represents an Indian Hatchet block 8" square finished size. This is the recommended Urban Amish size.


As you can see from the side to side comparison above the 8" unit shows off the focus fabric to full advantage.

It lets the fabric design breathe! How many times have you become enamored of a beautiful large-scale fabric or even mid-scale fabric and walked away from it because you have no readily available idea how to use it. Urban Amish Lessons are designed to help you design quilts easily that incorporate the new designer fabrics gracefully.

But there are more advantages to an UrbanAmish block approach. A very important one is the speed with which you can assemble a large quilt.

When you take the first block and make a Flipped & Mirrored Variation using four Indian Hatchet Blocks you have an new block unit 8" squares. (Refer to page 1 of Urban Amish Lesson 1 • Indian Hatchet Lesson and template download posted February 15, 2009 for the full details on the Indian hatchet assembly variations.)

If you take the second block (the UrbanAmish size block) and make a similar Flipped & Mirrored Variation you end up with a new block unit 16" square.



The advantage is readily apparent.

To make a 48" square top the old-fashioned way takes 36 Mirrored and Flipped units of 4 Indian Hatchet blocks each. (144 Indian Hatchets).

To make a 48" square top the UrbanAmish way takes 9 Mirrored and Flipped units of 4 Indian Hatchet blocks each. (36 Indian Hatchets).

See the side by side proportional comparison below.



That wedding gift or that quilt for the baby shower suddenly seems possible.

Coming up next in the blog, still a prequel to Lesson 2 :

A Real UrbanAmish Legend #1:

Stripes meet Indian Hatchet. An Urban Amisher takes to the wild.

A Real UrbanAmish Legend #2:

A Knitter fires up the Olde Sewing Machine and Lives to tell the Tale.

Contest update: No one has yet guessed the next block and I really want someone to win the UrbanAmish tee shirt so I'm going to give two more hints.
Hint #1: It is not Grandma's anything... not a fan, not a plate, not a garden. (Overwhelmingly those were the guesses.)
Hint #2: The name of the block has classical associations... Latin scholar's would like it. Look at the lighter fabric used in the Stripes Rule! post.

And before I hit the Publish Post button!
Look at what Joan Hawley of Lazy Girls Design made for me with my soon-to-be-released Sketchbook fabric line from Blank Quilting!


This is a Miranda Day Bag. This is made from her pattern #123. It has 10! inside pockets. That's a good day bag.
Get to know Joan at www.LazyGirlDesigns.com. You will be happy you did. I love reading her blog to start off each week.