Elongated hexagon charm quilt from my
Civil War Homefront reproduction collection for Moda.
Cindy at the Busy Thimble was hand quilting it in this photo.
Hexagonal shapes tessellate well, filling the plane with one shape.
It doesn't matter whether hexagons have equal sides
or some sides longer than others.
Two basic elongated hexagons are found in patchwork.
BlockBase #172 and #173 were described as coffin shapes by Averil Colby in her book on British patchwork.
Here's a page from my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.
In one elongated hexagon you could say the point is on the end.
About 1910
The quilt pattern goes back a long way.
The above detail is from the Taunay family quilt in the collection
of the Smithsonian Institution. It was probably made in the West Indies about 1800-1815.
This hexagonal shape was also relatively popular as a tessellated charm quilt in
the 1870-1900 period.
Names, depending on the proportion of the shape, included Lozenge and Pointed Oblongs from Caulfeild & Saward's 1882 English book on needlework and Church Windows from Averil Colby.
In America the Ladies Art Company called it Honeycomb Patchwork.
Proportion is variable.
From the 1950s, maybe.
The person selling this one (1960s-'70s?) saw it as a butterfly.
This shape will fit together in a variety of ways
with no gaps,
Something English quiltmaker Lucy Boston figured out in the 1950s.
See more about Lucy Boston here:
Robyn's block from her PP blog.
The other six-sided shape might be described as having blunt ends.
An early-19th-century example, basted over paper.
Probably English.
English bedcover dated 1797 in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum
This is among the earliest hexagon patchwork spreads and as the catalog says:
See the quilt here:
You do see this shape in American charm quilts
after 1870 or so.
Some skinny, some chubby.
From Mary Barton's Collection
Quilt Index
And some lined up nicely
From Stella Rubin's online shop
From the Wisconsin project and the Quilt Index.
This one looks to be from the mid 20th century.
Caulfeild & Saward didn't include a picture in 1882 when
they gave instructions for a Lozenge or Pointed Oblong.
Imagine trying to figure out what they were talking about from their description.
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