Size Matters

See this chessboard? It is one of the forty I made about eighteen years ago after my son learned chess at college, came home one weekend and asked if I could make him a chessboard. (Well, duh!)

My son took photos of me making the very first one and the photo I use in my blog's header, above.

Pretty sure I've told this story before. I made one, thought it was okay, then made another and improved on the first. Made a third that was much improved, made another one because I wanted one for myself in pretty colors and then had so much fun with them I kept going. (I called them "a symphony in four fabrics.")

Somebody asked a good question the other day, if I would change the quantity of the stripes in these big blocks. Answer = No.

I am sure you are wondering WHY. The size of the rows of this block (2-1/4") is for a very specific reason. When I made the first chessboard for my son, I did a bit of research. It turns out the size of the squares on a chessboard is directly related to the size of the chess pieces. (You can look it up.) 2-1/4" squares were most common. So I made the chessboards with 2-1/4" squares.

 And when I made the chessboard quilt, I used the leftover strip sets. I didn't get all worked up about how I put the blocks together (it was a SCRAP quilt).

I didn't get all worked up about how the blocks went together either. Then as now, I sewed about a third of my triangles into blocks, played with them on the floor, and then cut and sewed blocks I'd need to fit any space I had (a left leaning block with a dark stripe on the bottom).

I didn't get very worked up about how the blocks worked together, and if I had stripes that went across several triangles, that was fine by me. This quilt is big, about 76" x 94" and it is long gone. It is also tied and not quilted, but it lives in the southern US so it's perfect.

I always liked the quilt's inherent rhythm, the size of the blocks and the strips across, so when I resurrected this idea seventeen years later, I kept those basic "design bones."



And yes, I am working on the tutorial for these "Zebra" quilts. It's taking longer than I expected, but then, the world has thrown us all for a hell of a loop.

Detour

I've told you I made quilted chessboards. I loved doing them. I called them "a symphony in four fabrics."

They were essentially mini-quilts, about 26" square when finished and took less than a week to make. They are machine quilted, with denim in the middle (so they will be sort of stiff and lie flat). The borders are mitered and the binding is hand sewn to the front. The quilted chessboards meet "regulations" about the size of the squares, so the boards are very "playable."

When I designed this one, my son looked at the greens and said to me, "Mom, I don't like it. The greens are too blah. It's going to be boring. You should try again." (you can click the photos to enlarge.)I smiled at him, told him I valued his opinion, but went ahead with my plan. He didn't say anything.
But a few months later, he asked if he could "borrow" it.

It's still living at his house.

I just smile whenever I think about it.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Holidays! I hope everyone has a happy, healthy and safe holiday season!

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This is a Christmas-themed quilted chessboard I made a few years ago. You can click the photo to enlarge. It has denim in the middle for stiffness and is quilted in the ditch. The squares are 2-1/4", so this is a "regulation" sized chessboard. The inner border is 1/2" and the outer border is 3-1/2", so it's 25-1/2" square.

Chessboards

I really did make 40 chessboards. Here are pictures of five of them.This red and gold number was the first one I really liked. It's the one my son took away with him the first time I made them. The squares are 2-1/2", a bit larger than standard.

This one is one I made for myself. I like the play of the white on the black squares, and the black on the white squares. If you click the picture to enlarge it, you can see that I also stenciled letters and numbers on the inner border, identifying the squares. This makes it easier to describe a Chess move (like Nxf2, for example.) The squares on this Chessboard are "standard" size, about 2-1/4"

I made this pink and black one for my niece, and made a little bag for the pieces. This one and the next one have squares that are 2".

This jungle themed one is my nephew's.

This is another one I made for myself.

You can click the photos to enlarge them. I'll post some how-to pictures soon.