Card Trick

It's time to shuffle the deck and see how many ways I can change up the Card Trick pattern.

  I found the Card Trick pattern on page 143 (#1) of Jinny Beyer's The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns. The pattern is attibuted to "Jeffrey Gutcheon, The Perfect Patchwork Primer, 1973".  Other sources confirm that the team of Beth and Jeffery Gutcheon wrote quilt patterns in the 1970's for McCall's. In searching The Quilt Index it is clear Card Trick was a very popular design in the 1970-1990's.  Also, of interest, in The Quilt Index is a photo example of a different quilt by Jeffery Gutcheon, but no Card Trick.

38" X 38"

  My main interest writing this post is passing on the bit of research I found on the Card Trick block, and having a little fun making it my own. I hope by reviewing this cute block and seeing some little changes it will inspire others to make their own quilts. If you are looking for a pattern I would encourage you to check out the various free Card Trick patterns as well  as tutorials made by several other artists and posted on Pintress. 

   The Card Trick patterns I found seemed to fall in two groups for construction: using half square triangles or using squares.

   The above quilt uses the triangle method. I believe that this is closest to the original pattern,(I didn't find an pictures or measurments for the orginal pattern, however). 

I went with my own cutting and constrution methods to fit the size quilts I was going for. As you might guess using triangles was more time consuming than using squares. But, I feel it is worth it as surprisingly it made alot of difference in the total feel of the final piece. 

  I know not everyone is a fan of making half square triangles and the square construction method makes a fast, and super cute quilt.  

    Both of these methods seem popular on Pintress if you are looking for a pattern.

Above construction using triangles.

 64" X 64"

The above quilt is made using squares and is also made 

on-point. The size of the blocks in the two quilts is very different but I believe they are both represent the classic pattern.  

To me there was a big difference in the look of the two quilts, especially once quilted (both have meandering quilting done on my domestic machine).  I felt the first quilt was more interesting and the centers popped more when using the triangle construction.

 

47" X 47"

This quilt also uses squares for constrution but it looks very different as it is not set on-point.

Below are two quilts were I decided to take even more risks with changing up the original block.

 40" X 40"

  On this quilt I slashed each block in thirds once across the side  top and again down the side. I then inserted a strip of the background fabric and a  cournerstone square.

 Detail of above quilt

   51" X 51"

  For this quilt I changed the size of just one piece  from  

2" X 4" to  4" X 4".  You can see the difference it makes in the proportions of the block.

 Detail of above quilt

  As you can see I used the same fabrics for all the quilts. I thought it would be easier to notice the differences between quilts if your eye wasn't ditracted by different fabrics. 

  I hope you enjoyed my Card Trick adventure. Let me know which Card Trick you liked best.  

Have a great day!!

MaryEllen