Three Boat Blocks

October 10, 11 and 12 feature three boats that we all remember from our school history classes: The Niña, The Pinta, and the Santa Maria - all associated with Christopher Columbus. These are simple quilt blocks in my calendar and I've shared this quilt I made over 30 years ago. I think it was a pattern in a magazine, though I can't remember which one. The fabrics were a Jinny Beyer collection to celebrate 500 years of "Discovery" (the name of the collection).

My Discovery Quilt from 1994

Yes, we all know that Columbus didn't "discover" America, but he and his sailors saw it for the first time for them. Native Americans were living here for centuries before that! It's the boats I want to focus on today.

Here is a small quilt I made using a Benartex collection about 25 years ago. 3 blocks with one used twice.

4 Boats quilt

These are from my calendar in July. Read the post here. These next ones are the 3 calendar blocks named for the Columbus Quilt:

The Niña Block: 12"

Here's the Niña block stitched by Leslie P., one of my Calendar Girls. Simple block - you can see the patch lines because they are not busy prints.

The Niña block: 12"

Leslie used some fat quarters of the Noteworthy Collection by Windham Fabrics.

Noteworthy fabrics

The Pinta Block: 12"

And one more:

The Santa Maria Block: 12"

Boat blocks are fun to make, aren't they? I told my husband about this post and he reminded me that when we visited Spain several years ago, we bought two boats. Here they are visiting my Columbus quilt:

La Santa Maria and La Niña

I should have taken a photo of these together years ago! The quilt was made in 1994. The boats were purchased in Spain in 2001! Now they're happy. I've put them on the shelf right above the quilt so they can enjoy their visit after all these years.

You can find my calendar:

on Amazon

at C&T Publishing

and in Barnes & Noble stores