Quilter's Academy - Vol. 5 - Master's Year

by Harriet Hargrave & Carrie Hargrave-Jones

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Quilter’s Academy Volume 5 – Master’s Year by Harriet Hargrave and her daughter Carrie Hargrave-Jones is here! Having read the first four volumes – freshman through senior years – I was eager to delve into the newest level of this skill-building course in quilt making. The authors state that Volume 5 is less a pattern book than a resource to inspire quilters to apply the drafting, piecing, and quilting skills learned in Volumes 1 to 4 to creating and constructing a medallion quilt of one’s own design. Harriett offers her expertise in traditional, heirloom quilts. Her daughter provides the perspective of a newer quilter with an interest in modern quilt design.

Medallion quilts are defined as having a center motif or panel surrounded by borders. The original inspiration for framed quilts, as medallion quilts were called in England, may have been the 17th century Indian Palampores – large whole cloth painted or printed chintz with a center motif, corner designs, and borders. Over time, pieced sections, broderie perse, and applique were incorporated. In the American colonies, the preferred quilt layout evolved more into assembling rows of blocks, but the medallion quilt showed up from time to time.

As with other volumes of Quilter’s Academy, there are sections on drafting and precise construction – in this case beginning, intermediate, and advanced medallions quilts. Planning, designing, drafting, and constructing a medallion quilt are discussed for those wanting to create original designs; several patterns for quilts at all levels are provided. Of particular interest are the extensive discussions and examples of constructing pieced borders and learning to draft from a photograph of an antique quilt. Quilter’s Academy Volume 5 – Master’s Year is a valuable and inspirational resource to a quilter’s library!