Rose Tree: Show Off Piecing

From Quilts of Tennessee & the Quilt Index.

If I were looking for a number for this pattern I'd have to call it a variation of #44.7 in my Applique Encyclopedia.

It's down at the bottom left on this page of Floral Trees.

In her 1935 index to quilt patterns Carrie Hall called

it Prairie Flower or Missouri Rose.

Carrie Hall's block at the Spencer Museum.

She saw it as applique.

But I bet her inspiration, here called the Rose Tree

and Missouri Rose in another part of her book, was not appliqued....

More likely pieced like this one from an online auction.

Similar in style to the one below, which also looks pieced into a circle.

Sam Rayburn Family quilt.

The longtime speaker of the House was born in Tennessee

and the quilt resides in Texas.

http://www.thc.texas.gov/blog/sam-rayburn-house-artifact-month-prairie-rose-trapunto-quilt

From Spinning Spools

If you can find this out-of-print pattern book, you'll find a pattern for this one, also from Tennessee. 

But appliqued not pieced.

There seems to have been a style for the wreath design with blue leaves.

(You have to admit it's really not a tree but Rose Tree is the standard name today.)

Quite the fashion in Tennessee in the mid-19th century.

Here's a version by Mary Louise Howard from

the Quilts of Tennessee.

Marguerite Ickis in her 1949 book identified it as The Prairie Flower.

The quilt, which looks to be pieced, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It's numbered 44.2 in my Applique index but I gave it the wrong name.

Cross this out in your copy.

I see I have drawn it wrong too.

Carlie Sexton called it Prairie Flower about 30 years earlier.

We often see it in red and green as in another Tennessee pieced example.

Clarenca Bradford Kimble's quilt at the Spencer Museum of Art

has been called Tulip Tree in the catalogs over the years. (#44.3)

This one is appliqued and it appears to be growing like a tree or a shrub.

Similar tulips from Ickis's book

"Conventional Tulip Pattern"

More published names:

Rose & Buds from the Nancy Cabot column in 

the Chicago Tribune, 1937 (#44.5)

A good source for an appliqued pattern: 

Sue Garman's Borrowed Roses,

inspired by Rose Kretsinger's  "New Rose Tree."

http://www.comequilt.com/shop/Individual-Patterns/p/Borrowed-Roses-x1103507.htm

A simpler pattern for a Prairie Flower from Cabbage Rose Quilts:

https://cabbagerosequilts.com/collections/applique-quilt-patterns/products/prairie-flower

Pieced patterns for a Prairie Flower/ Missouri Rose/ Rose Tree????

Read more about the design at these posts:
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2012/07/extreme-show-off-piecing-rose-tree.html
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2012/02/garrard-county-kentucky.html

Tulip or Turkey

Irene asked for a pattern name for a family quilt

made in Bollinger County, Missouri.

There are many variations of this pieced design., although it's a little hard

to recognize with this shading.

This top with familiar horse prints and horse shoes looks to date from about 1900.

The pattern is close to BlockBase #3099, which was published in the Rural New Yorker magazine in 1937 with two names:

• The Swallow
• Burr & Thistle

Nancy Cabot called it Bible Tulip about the same time .

Another late-19th century version.

These are all pieced but related to the appliqued Turkey Tracks or Wandering Foot.

This version with long toes was pictured as applique in Ruth Finley's 1929 book.

Applique from Lowery Antiques

So most of us would call these Wandering Foot or Turkey Tracks.

There are so many possible tweaks to the feet - or the tulips...

And to the center squeezed square that it's tough to pinpoint a BlockBase number.

Here's a square center square.

It's also difficult to pinpoint a source.

I've only got this one photo with an actual square.

Lenna DeMarco owns this late 19th century version pieced

into a circle (a circle of sorts). The only one I've seen.

Another unusual pieced example, Block on point.

From the New Jersey Project & the Quilt Index.

Irene's grandmother may very well have used a Kansas City Star pattern published in 1947. Her quilt looks like it dates from about that decade or the 1950s.

Before photocopying pattern collectors used to trace patterns and trade.

From the Quilt Index.

BlockBase #3103

One of many similar pieced designs.

The Star's quilt column gave it two names:

A Century Old Tulip pattern

and Pieced Tulip

I would imagine that Irene's Grandmother in southern Missouri found inspiration in the Kansas City Star or it's sister publication the Weekly Star Farmer.

If you are inspired to piece one of these tulips remember that BlockBase will print the pattern any size you like.

Or look at this link where you can preview Edie McGinnis's book Sister Blocks and see a pattern.

https://books.google.com/books?id=RggaA0y8t4cC&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=century+old+tulip+pattern+kansas+city&source=bl&ots=aTaV8v8rAq&sig=zSL-AG-whoC9JA7lq-TG1OtFbqU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwje4vCM093SAhVM2SYKHRbOBIgQ6AEIOzAK#v=onepage&q=century%20old%20tulip%20pattern%20kansas%20city&f=false

Coxcombs & Show Off Piecing

Here's a stained old block I found in an auction online.

I saved the photos as it's such a beautiful pattern.

Sort of a Caesar's Crown in the center;

The arms a lily or coxcomb.

Is that pieced?

The photos were large enough to see the construction method.

I put black lines where the seams are.

The central block is probably pieced and so are the cockscombs in the corners.

I have a pictorial file of similar patterns.

There aren't many.

Susan Jenkins & Linda Seward put one

on the cover of their American Quilt Story.

It must be from their collection. They didn't know much about it except that it was cover-worthy

A nine-block.

In the book you can see that it is probably pieced too.

Show-off piecing!

Linda Geisler Carlson also thought it cover-worthy

Her Four Blocks Continued book shows her

version of the design.

She calls it Crossed Coxcomb, and has said that the original inspiration is in the Audrain County Historical Society collection in Missouri.

The International Quilt Study Center & Museum

also owns one.

I believe it's pieced too. You can see the seam around the center block and seams connecting the leaves.

This gorgeous example is date-inscribed 1858 and signed Mary Hart.

It's from the James Collection and attributed to Clark County, Kentucky.

#1997.007.0720

I saw another (perhaps in a sampler quilt) in an online auction about 2 years ago.

The auction was in Tennessee.

This one might have appliqued cockscombs around a pieced square.

The leaves cross the seam line of that square.

I found a reproduction of the IQSCM quilt floating

around on the internet. By the clear tape I am guessing

it was shown at Houston. Anyone know who did this?

Another take on it from Karen.

An impressive feat.

I'm assuming the reproduction quilts are appliqued.

You might be inspired to do it show-off-piecing style. Here are three posts on pieced patterns that look appliqued.

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2012/06/show-off-piecing-whig-rose.html

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2012/08/show-off-piecing-victorias-crown.html

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2012/08/show-off-piecing-borders.html

Like many other show-off-pieced appliques the antiques may be Tennessee/Kentucky regional patterns.