Block 17 - The Queen

Wow! we are up to block 17 already! This one is a little more work but still not difficult.

Mildred's Block

My Block

As I was photographing the blocks, by ever-helpful 17 year old son pointed out that my queen looks rather angry! Mildred's queen looks much more friendly. I am planning to re-do the embroidery on mine before I put them all together! 

Block 17- The Queen

When the king was appliqued on his block the club members had wondered whether the queen would not appear by the time the letter Q came by, and sure enough she did. Such a perky little queen Joan wanted to know whether she was the queen who ate the bread and honey while the king counted his money. Aunt Nancy said she thought so, for this queen looked as if she had had many a meal of bread and honey.

For this block the choice of materials is wide. Of course all colors and materials chosen must be fast. One member made the queens face pale pink. She made her yellow hair, and a crown of white and yellow.

Another member made the hair soft brown with a crown of yellow.

A third member made crown and hair in one piece. She chose yellow and then worked a star pattern in lazy daisy stitch on the crown itself. This is the easiest method because the hair and crown may be cut in one piece.

The ruff can be any color at all. One member outlined it and made diagonal lines in lavender on the white block itself. But most of the ruffs where made of a separate piece of cloth appliqued and then trimmed with diagonal lines in simple running stitch.

The eye is embroidered in fast color blue and the mouth is pink or soft red. The letter is outlined in fine chain or outline stitch with fast color embroidery cotton similar to that used for all the letters in the previous blocks of the quilt.

The members made the block as follows: the paper pattern was first cut from the paper and held against the window pane.

Over this was laid the fine white gingham square cut 6 ½ by 6 ½ inches. With a sharp pointed lead pencil the letter and queen were drown onto the cloth.

Then the paper was pasted onto light weight card or tag board.

After the paper pattern was dry the pieces were cut. The face and neck was laid on pink material. The hair and crown were laid on yellow or brown. The crown may be cut separately from the hair of course.

The ruff was cut.

In cutting an allowance for turning under was made on all sides of all pieces. The allowance was one quarter inch.

The face was laid in place over the penciled outline on the white block.  When this had been appliquéd with fine, slanting invisible stitches, the ruff was put on. Following this came the hair and the crown, separately or together.

Then the eye was embroidered in satin stitch, as was the mouth. The ruff was stitched with the fine running stitch. The crown was worked with lazy daisy flowers unless a figured print had been chosen for the crown.

When finished the queen was a joy to look at. Joan hugged the block and wrinkled it so that Aunt Nancy had to press it all over again. 

Enjoy! You can download the pattern for the queen HERE.