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You are here: Home > Community > Lessons > Benni Harper Mystery Lessons > Lesson 11

Benni Harper Mystery Lesson 11: Broken Dishes

quilt design by Andrea Poulimenos

Broken Dishes quilt by Andrea Poulimenos

Broken Dishes is a simple pattern consisting of triangles arranged in a four-patch square. The squares are turned at different angles to create the broken dishes effect. It is a popular pattern with examples dating back to the 1790s and is one of the most common, earliest recorded designs in quilt history. Though a charming name that could have been inspired by many things including household accidents or even shattered dishes along the rough and rugged trail West, like many quilt patterns, it cannot be traced directly to any one original source. Most pattern histories come to us through folklore, old magazine articles, and sometimes diary or journal entries. It is a wonderful pattern to utilize colorful scraps of leftover fabric, but can also be quite striking and modern-looking if made using only two colors. Other names for this pattern are Old Tippecanoe, Bow Ties, Hour Glass, Whirling Blade, and Yankee Puzzle.


Start the Broken Dishes project

  1. Open EQ5.
  2. Click the Create a New Project tab (it appears immediately when you open EQ5).
    OR
    On the FILE menu, choose New.
  3. Type: Benni-Goose.
  4. Click OK.

Getting the Block from the Library

  1. At the top of your screen, click LIBRARIES - Block Library.
  2. Click the Search button.
  3. Put a check in the Name field, leave the other two checkboxes unchecked.
  4. Type "Broken Dishes" and press ENTER on your keyboard.
  5. Click the first block to select it.
  6. Click the Copy button.
  7. Click Close to put the library away.

Setting up the Quilt

  1. At the top of your screen, click WORKTABLE - Work on Quilt.
  2. Click QUILT - New Quilt - Horizontal.
  3. At the bottom of your screen, click the Layout tab.
  4. In the box to the side, change the numbers to 4, 4, 12, 12, 0, 0, no check. This will make your quilt a horizontal 4x4 quilt with 12" square blocks and no sashing.
  5. Click the Borders tab. You should already have a 1" Mitered border.
  6. Under Style, click the dropdown arrow and change it to Long Vertical.
  7. Be sure there is a check next to All and also Clone selected border.
  8. Click the Add button twice. You should have 3 - 1" Long Vertical borders now.
  9. Click the middle border to select it.
  10. Double-click on top of the 1.00 size for Left.
  11. Type: 4
  12. Click directly onc the small rectangle on the slider. If it jumps to 3.75 or 4.25 just click to the left or right of the rectangle accordingly to make it jump to 4.00.
  13. Your quilt center and borders are setup, so click the Layer 1 tab.

Setting the Block

  1. Click the Set tool .
  2. Click on the Broken Dishes block in the palette to select it.
  3. Point your cursor to an empty block space in the quilt.
  4. Hold down your keyboard CTRL key and click to set the block in every space.

Color the Quilt and Blocks

  1. Click the Swap tool .
  2. Find a light muslin or white fabric in the palette and click on it to select it.
  3. Position your cursor over the blue in the blocks and click. The blue will be replaced with the muslin and now the dark and light values in your quilt center have switched as well.
  4. Click on the middle border with the Swap tool and the same muslin/white. All three borders will change at the same time, but don't worry. They did this because they all had the same color. We'll color the inner- and outermost borders after a few other steps.
  5. Click the Paintbrush tool .
  6. Find a very dark red in the palette and click on it to select it.
  7. Hold down your keyboard CTRL key and click on the triangle in the upper-left corner of a block. All the blocks will change at the same time because you are using the CTRL key.
  8. CTRL + click this smae fabric with the Paintbrush tool into the outermost border.
  9. Find a light red in the palette and click on it to select it.
  10. Hold down your keyboard CTRL key and click on the triangle in the botom-right corner of a block. All the blocks will change at the same time because you are using the CTRL key.
  11. Find an medium red in the palette and click on it to select it.
  12. Hold down your keyboard CTRL key and click on the two triangles in the center of a block which form a bow-tie.
  13. CTRL + click this same fabric with the Paintbrush tool into the innermost border.
  14. Your blocks and borders are colored. Good job!

Save the quilt

  1. Click the Save in Sketchbook button .
  2. Click the View Sketchbook button and click the Quilts tab.
  3. Click the Notecard button.
  4. In the top Name field, type: "My Broken Dishes quilt".
  5. Click the "X" in the bottom-right to close the Sketchbook.
  6. Click the Save button to save your notecard information.
  7. Your Broken Dishes quilt is now complete, and saved on the hard drive.

Print the blocks (optional)

  1. To print a rotary cutting chart for the blocks click the Select tool . Click on the block on the quilt.
  2. Click FILE - Print - Rotary Cutting. Click the Size from quilt box. Click Print.

Sunshine and Shadow 2 - Andrea PoulimenosHere's what another variation could look like if you used the Spraycan tool (without the CTRL key) and just chose light, medium, and dark values of different fabrics.

to be continued with another Benni Harper mystery quilt