A CLOUD OF QUILT PATTERNS: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PATTERN IN BLOG FORM UPDATES & ADDITIONS BY BARBARA BRACKMAN

Monday, June 26, 2017

Cross Roads

It's hard to see the repeat here.

This is the block.

It's BlockBase #2946

The first publication was by Clara Stone about 1910, who called it
Cross Roads to Bachelor's Hall, 
but she ran a fairly obscure New England pattern company.



The Kansas City Star made it popular by publishing it three
times at least---first under the name Cross Roads in the '30s
Then as Wagon Wheels in the '40s
And also as Broken Circle in the '50s.

Many of the 1930s quilts were probably made
from Eveline Foland's Star pattern about 1930.



The basic design is older than the published patterns.
The Tennessee project found this dramatic red and green version.

Made by an unknown woman about 1890 in Winchester, Tennessee.


A variation with more pieces, again from Quilts of Tennessee.
Made by Eliza Hensley Johnson,1875-1900.

The gray colored shapes are the extra pieces


Online auction. 1890-1920?


You can make a Quick Quilt in BlockBase to show how
the block repeats. The secondary designs certainly offer
a lot of design potential.

A scrappy thirties look

There's also a variation numbered 2947.

Pattern designer Hubert Ver Mehren added an extra square in the arc in the mid-1930s(although it's really not square.) He may have noticed the Star version and decided to change it a little.

An ad for his Colonial Quilt Book

An impressive version of #2947 Cross Roads
from the New England Quilt Museum's collection.

One difference between these patterns is the proportion of
arc to the squeezed, curved, 4-sided shape (gray here).
Ver Mehren showed the squeezed shape as rather wide.

Foland's version also shows it as wide at the point,
but in some it's quite narrow, finishing in a sharp point.

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