Sarah J. Maxwell - Morse Code Quilts: Material Messages for Loved Ones

Morse Code Quilts

by Sarah J. Maxwell

Landauer Publishing (www.landauerpub.com) is an imprint of

Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc.

Copyright 2019 by Sarah J. Maxwell and

Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc., 903 Square Street, Mount Joy, PA 17552.

Project Team:

Vice PresidentContent: Christopher Reggio

Editors: Laurel Albright/Sue Voegtlin

Copy Editor: Anthony Regolino

Designer: Laurel Albright

Photographer: Sue Voegtlin

ISBN: 978-1-947163-06-5
eISBN: 978-1-607659-48-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Fox Chapel Publishing, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review and the enlargement of the template patterns in this book for personal use only. The patterns themselves, however, are not to be duplicated for resale or distribution under any circumstances. Any such copying is a violation of copyright law.

Note to Professional Copy Services The publisher grants you permission to make up to ten copies for any purchaser of this book who states the copies are for personal use.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Maxwell, Sarah (Sarah J.), author.

Title: Morse code quilts / Sarah Maxwell.

Description: Mount Joy, PA: Landauer Publishing, [2019]

Identifiers: LCCN 2019003115 | ISBN 9781947163065 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Patchwork quits. | Patchwork--Patterns. | Quilting--Patterns.

| Morse code--Miscelanea.

Classification: LCC TT835 .M2736958 2019 | DDC 746.46/041--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019003115

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This book has been published with the intent to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter within. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the author and publisher expressly disclaim any responsibility for any errors, omissions, or adverse effects arising from the use or application of the information contained herein.

Morse code was created in the early 1800s as a method of transmitting information across telegraph wires. Long before the days of the U.S. Postal Service, fax machines, email, and social media, individuals and government leaders needed a fast, reliable way to exchange information across great distances.

As scientists discovered that electrical current could be stored in battery form and that electrical current could be disrupted with magnets, they began experimenting with how that knowledge could be used to create a communication system. Researchers on both sides of the Atlantic are credited with important contributions to the creation of the telegraph system and the resulting code that allowed for communication. Americans Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail developed a code based on a series of dots (short pulses) and dashes (longer pulses) that telegraph operators memorized so they could quickly transcribe letters as the communication was received.

Samuel Morse

Alfred Vail

Morse code is a series of dots and dashes that represent each letter of the alphabet and each number. When converting Morse code to a "quilt code," the dots, dashes, spaces between units within a letter, and space between words, all contribute to the size of a word or phrase. The following illustration shows how each unit is counted. At this point, you will be calculating units, not measurements. (Actual Morse code for communication has slightly different spacing requirements than what I use for fabric messages. My conventions prevent the design from becoming an unmanageable width.)

The dot is 1 unit.

A dash is 2 units, or two times the dot measurement.

The space between parts in a letter is half a unit.

The spaces between letters in a word is one and a half units The illustration below is the word sew.

The space between words in a single row is equal to 3 units. The illustration below spells out sew it.

give you the unit counts for numbers, letters, and months.

Next, you'll add the letter spacers, (3) 1.5 units, and that brings the unit count to 25.5 units. Below, the word "Love" is illustrated in "quilt code" dot/dash units.

Now a measurement has to be assigned to the unit.

Once I have my unit count, I decide how big I want my quilt to be. For instance, the , finishes at 42" by 50". I need to assign sizes to the phrase units to work within the width of 42". You may have to experiment with several unit measurements to see what fills the width of your quilt. Remember that the longest word will probably determine the width of your quilt.

If I used 1" for finished dot size, then 25.5 units times 1" equals 25". This is not enough to fill the 42" width of my quilt.

If I used 2" for a finished unit size, then 25.5 units times 2" equals 51". This is too big for the width.