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

Tuesday, July 20, 2021

Last Blog Post Here

No blog posts....
There's too much going on around here.

What with getting out more...

Having people over

Zooming and blogging....

Something's got to go.
And it's this pattern blog.

I'll still write about patterns over at my main blog Material Culture, but
now that I've updated the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns I just don't
have so much to write about.

Bye, bye.

Monday, June 14, 2021

Odd Fellows, Odd Patterns

 

An interesting pattern, part album block, part star.

Not in the third edition of my Encyclopedia or BlockBase+
where it should be here in the 298xsss.

#2897 is similar. You could describe these as kind
of awkward stars, odd proportions with seams in odd places.

The red quilt was pieced like this. Y seams? Why?


The striped shirtings are a clue to an 1880-1925 quilt. During that time, the first years of published patchwork patterns, similar designs were printed. The agricultural newspaper The Orange Judd Farmer printed #2897 (the aqua sketch above) in 1898, possibly inspired by an earlier pattern.

A related awkward design appeared in the Ladies' Home Journal
 in October, 1894

Author Sybil Lanigan began with a more traditional pattern based
on an old red and white quilt sashed with white. She gave
the pattern name: It was called the Odd Fellows' March for some unknown reason...."


(I'd guess the name comes from the fraternal organization
the Odd Fellows who had many musical compositions to parade with.)

Sybil may have seen a quilt much like this,
a popular design in variations similar to one the Ladies Art
Company called Odd Fellows with the idea that the triangles might
be pieced of odd prints.

From about the same time

But then Sybill digressed to a simpler pattern of her own design.


The quiltmaker may have been trying to make Sybil's red and white design
workable.

And here's one from the 1940s or '50s. Some of the blocks
have seams going down the middle of the points and some....

Monday, June 7, 2021

Star of Kentucky

When looking at Kentucky quilt style over on my Material Culture blog I looked for patterns named for Kentucky in the new Encyclopedia and BlockBase+.  Not a lot: Nine as opposed to say California and Kansas that have dozens.

 
We just added this one to the third edition:
Star of Kentucky published in Comfort magazine in 1911.
#3723-5
I didn't have much of a clipping but the programmers got the idea.

A six-pointed star is probably the perfect pattern for the state.

In silk.





The whole mosaic idea based on a hexagon is so-o-o Kentucky.

And in cotton:
Found in the West Virginia project, made in Kentucky.

From Vintage Blessings, attributed to Kentucky.


Monday, May 31, 2021

Flower Ring from the Kansas City Star

 

Quilt probably made from a Kansas City Star pattern
in the 1940s or '50s.

Mrs. S.L. Heacock of Hartford, Kansas (near Emporia)
mailed the design to the Star where it was published as 
Flower Ring on May 29, 1940.

It's an unusual version of the Pickle Dish, just like a Double Wedding Ring but with spiky
points rather than the usual wedding ring arcs. BlockBase #459.2

Double Wedding Rings have truncated points.

Ms. Heacock may have had an old quilt in the Flower Ring design.

Here's a similar pattern from the book Texas Quilts: Texas Treasures called Pine Burr or Pickle Dish, attributed to Elizabeth Ruff Mitchell in Texas or Georgia. Quilt shows the fading and color schemes typical of the 1880-1920 era.

I'd guess a fabric designer working for a feedsack company might have seen the Kansas City Star design as there is a similar pattern in a feedsack designed to be re-used as a pillow case with a border included.

As the pattern is in BlockBase+ you can print it out any size.
An 11" version fits on an 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of paper.

A Challenge!


Monday, May 24, 2021

Wheel of Destiny

 

A lilac quilt from the mid-20th century in an unusual pattern.
I've only two photos of vintage quilts in the Wheel of Destiny design. 
(BlockBase+ #2345)

Here's another from the same time period.

The pattern appeared in Farm Journal magazine, but I don't have a date.

The magazine sold patterns for many years. This one for a four-patch pinwheel
came in the mail in 1933.

Wheel of Destiny seems quite modern.

The purple quilt is shaded counterchange fashion with darks in one block light in the next.

I tried that out in by exporting #2345 to EQ8.
A two-color quilt.

Three colors.
Pattern for a Nine-Inch Block from BlockBase+
You could use this to make templates or use
the triangle as a paper piecing pattern.

The Quilt Layout application in BlockBase+
shows several ways to set the block.

In a horizontal layout

And a vertical strip with a half drop repeat.


Monday, May 17, 2021

Setting Sun

 

A while ago Leota sent me a photo of a 1930s-40s top she had

A complex pieced Dresden Plate
It wasn't in my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.

We found it as Setting Sun, a Laura Wheeler
newspaper pattern---those pieces in the corners are 
"tiny clouds."

So when we revised the Encyclopedia I sent the programmers
a sketch


And here it is as #1488.3 in both the book version
and BlockBase+ the digital version.



The Wyoming project and the Quilt Index showed two quilts made from the pattern. This owner who bought the quilt attended one of Merikay Waldvogel's Laura Wheeler workshops and knew the pattern name and source.

Because it's in BlockBase+ you can print out a pattern----templates drawn for you. I'm giving you a drawing of 1/4th and you can use this as templates for a 15" pattern. This might be the perfect pattern for your 3-D printer. Plastic Templates.