I seem to be on a mission to make classic quilts. Well, the colors are classic, I put my own twist on the patterns. Last year I made a red and white quilt, except it also had black. At one of the quilt meetings, Arlene Arnold informed us that black was a very hard fabric to dye. So until Aniline dyes in the late 19th century, they didn’t have a lot of black fabric. So what about all those widows in black you ask? They would take old dresses and over-dye them. They were probably more muddy brown than black. But what do we know about what people wore 150 years ago? We know what we see in the movies. Which is all well and good, but they aren’t wearing authentic clothes from that period. Recently I heard someone say she wishes she lived back 80-100 years ago – cuz judging by the movies their clothes were amazing…. I’ll just say here, she is young.
So this whole preamble is simply to say, I want a red and white quilt. I am happy to use all shade of red and if it’s a print, it’s fine if there is white in the red prints. The background will be solid white, no white on white prints.
I was immediately attracted to this quilt made by Laundry Basket Quilts, it is called Alaska. I really like it, but I want this as my jumping off design inspiration, not to make this quilt,
So for the center, I’m going with an oval Mariners compass. Luckily I have a template in Judy Mathesons’ book.
Paper piecing for the win. 
It is beginning to take shape.
Yes, I am more than happy to use different shade of red. My background is a solid white, I will be playing with a lot of prints in red.
Almost done, need to piece the center. 
I love the curved look one gets without using curves, storm at sea, or the corner blocks in ‘Alaska’ do this, something I will try and replicate.
I enjoy having a basic idea, rather than recreating and exact quilt.
Leah