So how did this thing get started anyway?
Basically here’s how Nisha and Kim found their jam. Kim used to forecast the weather long ago for Fox in Boston (sooooo many hair styles ago.)
Thus her love affair with Brimfield, a town in central Massachusetts right on the Connecticut border, began. It hosts an antiques fair three times a year: May, July, and September. It has fields and fields and fields of estate sale type stuff. If you’ve ever watched Antiques Road Show or Flea Market Flip, then you know what we’re talking about. It is a collector of *anything* vintage’s dream. Fast forward 19 years and Kim now has a l-o-n-g-i-n-g to return to those fields.
By this time, Kim and Nisha are good friends. Tied to the DC metropolitan area for work, they are both members of the DC Modern Quilt Guild and attend the same types of sewing retreats. It isn’t long before they plan a road trip to the May 2017 Brimfield Antiques Show to sniff out some vintage quilty goodness.
As any good Brimfielder knows, you come prepared. That means you have the following: cash (or a friend with access to cash because you don’t have your ATM card, ahem), rolling cart, hat, sunscreen, water, waterproof shoes (preferably tall – we’ve beaten women to the loot because they had to take the long way around a deep puddle), assortment of bags from plastic to larger bags, rain slicker, and the Brimfield Flea Finder ap. Check off every Monday-Friday item from that list!
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Brimfield staggers the opening of their fields over the course of multiple days. It starts on a Tuesday and goes through that Sunday. Some of the fields have specific start times, but several simply open at “sunrise”. Most of the residents in and along Route 20 and the side streets turn their ample yards into parking lots that week charging ~$8 for the day.
LET THE WALKING BEGIN!
We highly urge you to count your steps while walking the fields – they will add up! At first the charming names of the fields like “New England Motel” make you go “isn’t that quaint”, but by hour 5, with new blisters and port-o-potty induced fatigue, one might be inclined to say “Quaker Acres”??? Why would anyone name a field *that*?” But then your bestie will offer you a sugary treat deep from within one of the many picnic-styled bags in her cart and you’ll snap out of your diva-ness and instantly remember why you’re there.
And then it will hit you. The Smell.
It wafts up from the forgotten about bags of textiles holding the odd assortment of 1930’s feedsacks and orphaned quilt blocks. The smell will lead you there. Musty? yes, but in a good way. This is exactly what happened to us – walking past a dealer with an old blanket laying on the damp ground with a bunch of Hefty bags strewn about. We eyed each other as in “all clear” and at once started rummaging through the bags. And as if the heavens high above felt our collective endorphins releasing, a choir of angels sang as we pulled out THE ORIGINAL BRIMFIELD BLOCK.
It was love at first site. From that day on, our planning began. We knew we had to get this pattern out into the world. We redesigned the block – added a third “house” piece (instead of keeping the original 2 house shapes), changed the proportions and most importantly – we added the “perforation” option to the block. This would mean that quilters could decide whether or not to have separate “roof” or triangle pieces or keep the house shapes as one. What we didn’t know at that time was just how beautifully the blocks would look when pieced together without traditional sashing in between – the two different areas of negative space that would result. With limited wifi, we researched the block and figured it had to be a descendent of the “Strawberry” block (made popular in the late 1920’s published in a newspaper.) So, one diner at a time from Vernon CT down to East Brunswick NJ we plotted our game plan over bowls of matzo ball soup and Reubens. Over the course of the Jersey Turnpike we hatched Brimfield Awakening and the Brimfield Block Quilt.
Isn’t Carrie’s quilting from @Gotchacoveredquilting divine?
To make the Brimfield block quilt you will need to purchase the original PS4 pads, new original ps4 pads, and Grade B Ps4 pads (or these ex uk ps4 vr plus free gun & 1 game. ) Our paper pieces are unique in that they have perforation. This allows you the flexibility to create more pieces for additional fussy cutting 🙂
Please share your Brimfield Block quilt pictures with us! Use the hashtags #BrimfieldBlock or #grotetietenfilms. We can’t wait to see what you make. And by the way, we’re not done. Much more Brimfield patterns are to come. We came home with loaded carts after all 🙂
I can barely sew a button on, but love quilts. This is such a cool discovery and made a gorgeous creation!
Thankyou! I didn’t start *really* sewing until 40. So much of what I learned, after a few lessons from my kind neighbor, I picked up by watching YouTube videos☺️
Love the block.
Thank you❤️❤️❤️ It has been such an exciting journey☺️
OMG—-Brimfield. From way back in the 70’s. The fever would hit as soon as one hit the first market. Whatever you collected would be there. Up most of the night. Flashlights essential. And now 40 years later a quilt block to stir all those memories.
Yes! It IS like a fever… For us, it is all about the smell. We have to follow our noses to quilty bliss. It is just SO HARD to pass the time between October and May though! They need a February Brimfield in the snow and cold – people would come!! lol
The turquoise colored font is ver difficult to read.
Thanks for your feedback👌🏻
Am fascinated by this pattern. What size is the finished block?
Thankyou! 14” finished block☺️
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly!
Absolutely! We hope you’ll make some blocks and tag us 🙂
Found you over on paperpieces.com. Wow, I love the look of the Brimfield block! Turning chance into a great opportunity for you two and the rest of us.
You should have seen the look on our faces when we emptied that nasty trash bag and this beautiful block came tumbling out of it! Thanks for following along and we hope you will tag us with your pictures.
Hey ya’ll….yes I’m a southern gal, and a quilter……..I do have a strawberry fetish and it seems 7 years ago, I saved a pattern from http://www.easyquilting.info/quilt-patterns/strawberry………it is from the late 1800’s. So fast forward till today. I was cleaning out, and putting my things in folders and ran across this. It looks so much like the brimfield awakening block I had to write to you. I even think I could your your papers and templates to make the “Strawberry” block mine…..I love strawberry quilts, and most of the ones I have made for us has strawberry fabric in it somewhere. I love the Brimfield block, just don’t have the money right now…….if you want to see it, I will scan it in and send it. I couldn’t find it now under easy quilting, but do still have the paper copy I made. I’m just so surprised at the look of this, just had to share…..Thanks, gloria g. Walls Wellborn, FL [email protected]
Hi Gloria, yes! We are aware of “the strawberry”. In our research, we found it in a 1929 Kansas City Star newspaper article (that produced quilt blocks every week.) They referred to it as an “old time” pattern, so that jives with your finding it from the late 1800’s. They also refer to it as “patchwork”. Ours is EPP. Whoever made the orphan block we found also added a few more points, but we do believe their original inspiration was The Strawberry block from long ago 😉 Happy stitching!
I just bought a set of the paper templates for the Brimfield block and started to make the block on Deoression Era reproduction fabrics. The block is unique and beautiful and I have enjoyed the history behind the block.
I still have a couple of questions: When was the block found? When do you think the original block was made?
Thank you.
Hi Brit,
We found the original block at the Brimfield Antiques fair in May 2017. We took it with us to International Quilt Market in Houston in September 2017 and had an antiques quilt expert look at it to give us an idea of the date that our particular block was made based on the fabric and they said early 1940s. We originally thought it was a derivative of the Strawberry Block (from the Kansas City Star newspaper patterns that we saw from the late 1920s.) But then we found a later pattern called “oriental Star” that was produced and it appears to be the inspiration behind the Brimfield Block (which looks to be a derivative of the “Strawberry”) When we created The Brimfield Block, we played around and changed the proportions/dimensions, added perforation to all the “house pieces” so that all the triangle tips can be removed and made with different fabric (or not.) and Added a “center medallion” piece as an option (for those who don’t want the centers to be open to the background fabric.) We also have the blocks pieced without traditional sashing in between which revealed 2 really cool negative spaces – within each block and between the blocks. We were blown away! So glad you love it and please tag us with what you make using the hashtags #brimfieldblock or #grotetietenfilms on social media 🙂
Thank you for all this information. I appreciate it. Placing the pattern in history makes it more special and fun to do.
I can see why you thought it might be a derivative of the Kansas City Strawberry block. They similar. I googled it. I joined the Brimfield Awakening, now The Brimfield Bee, Facebook group, and I will post photos of this project there.
Thanks again.
I finished the blocks, set them on a beautiful white background.
I’m thinking about a quilt pattern. Do I quilt the quilt and them appliqué the blocks after
Can’t find many suggestions about this process
Hi,
Applique your quilt EPP rings to the background square, piece your quilt top together, then quilt 🙂 Our pattern for the Brimfield Block covers all of this.