A Scrappy Chintz Quilt: Odd Pattern

This pattern in a scrappy chintz quilt from about 1830-1850

is "Unknown,"

(a tragedy for us pattern classifiers.)

I saw the quilt in an online auction.

It should be on this page of BlockBase

with similar blocks. 

Many of these triangle designs are called Railroad Crossing.

The main similarity on that page is

the 4X design with 2 primary diagonal seams.

And then two sizes of half-square triangles.

I drew it up in EQ7.

Because few people used the term railroad in the 1830 & '40s I

am calling it "A Ride in the Cars."

In 1846 Emily Dickinson took the train from Amherst to Boston but that's not how she phrased it:

"I had a delightful ride in the cars, and am now getting settled down, if there can be such a state in the city."

A paper cut-out card of Queen Victoria and the

Royal Family in the cars in 1842.

You don't want to set it as an all-over pattern

because  you get this more common 9-patch looking design.

If you rotate every other block to the side it looks like the original.

A Ride in the Cars

Quilt with 12" Blocks

64 blocks = 98" square

And if you shaded the center blocks in pink you'd get

the medallion-like look that quilters favored before 1850.

The EQ7 drawing is for a 12 inch block.

Here are the cutting instructions for 1 block.

Cutting a 12" Block

A - Cut 5 squares 5-1/4". (3 light/2 dark) Cut each into 4 triangles with 2 diagonal cuts. You need 18 triangles.

B - Cut 1 dark square 13-1/4".  Cut into 4 triangles with 2 diagonal cuts. You need 2 triangles.

See Barbara S.'s version here:

http://barbaradschaffer.blogspot.com/2018/08/triangles.html