Another One of a Kind

Ever since I first read Ruth Finley's book Old Quilts & The Women Who Made Them

I've been looking for another one of these.

Finley lived in New York when she published that book in 1929. The quilts in the photos came from New York and New England for the most part. Perhaps the Mrs. Robert Waugh who loaned the quilt for photography was a friend on Long Island.

The caption says it was originally cochineal red---I'd guess she was

wrong and it was Turkey red, probably made after 1840.

I've colorized it to give you an idea of what it might

have looked like---in case you run across it.

The stars at the top and the tree branches look to be appliqued in the dogtooth manner.

No templates were used, the maker slashed a circle and turned the edges under freehand.

Freehand stars were rather common in the mid-19th century.

You cut a circle, slash it 8 times....

The tree branches were cut as strips and slashed

much like this arc from a quilt sold online by

French72 Antiques

Baltimore Album sold by Opfer Auctions

The dogtooth border is seen on many mid-19th century quilts.

See more about dogtooth borders here:

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/search?q=dogtooth

Although the techniques were common---the quilt is strange.

Hands All Round

Hands All Round quilt about 1900

from Linda's collection at Treasuredquiltsuk blog

http://treasuredquiltsuk.blogspot.com/2010/09/uninhibited-pink-quilt.html

This popular pattern was called variously:

Hands All Around

All Hands Round

Hands All Around

It's #4044 a and b in BlockBase

The name was familiar in the mid-19th century. An 1852 poem celebrating English nationalism by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Hands All Round" had a chorus involving a toast. The Art of Dancing, published in 1859 mentions a dance move for a jig: "All Hands Round."

I couldn't find any versions of the quilt going back to the 1850s though. Most seem to date from after 1900....

with lots from the mid-20th century after the patterns were

published.

From Aunt Martha

She used Aunt Martha's color choices--- green, pink & white

The Quilt Index has records of a few but none with dates inscribed.

By Mary Plaisted Taggart

From the New York Project.

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=73-19B-144

The family story on this one found in the North Carolina project

is that friends in Lawrence, Kansas made it for Elizabeth Butler in 

1917 when she moved to Nebraska.

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4B-82-F17

Hands All Around from the Kansas City Star in 1935 sent in by a 

Missourian, mentioning a barn dance call.

It wouldn't be an easy design to make. In BlockBase

it's classified as Miscellaneous, based on rather odd

seam lines.

Hands All Round from the Ladies Art Company

in the 1928 catalog.

Ruth Finley showed a version on point in her 1929 book calling it Friendship Knot or Starry Crown---also on the miscellaneous page (#4045) and it looks harder to sew.

A signature quilt dated 1932---#4045

In thinking about the sources for the odd construction I am reminded of the Whig's Defeat, a combination pieced and appliqued design that was quite popular in the South after 1850 or so. Perhaps the block evolved from that older design.

Layered Rose Applique

Rose from the Silber/Reuther collection at Mary Stricker's Quilt

Here's a mid-19th-century floral applique that

one might call unsophisticated.

Julie and Linda showed the quilt in 1981 at the Oakland Museum.

The design looks like it might be one of a kind but it was a pattern passed around somehow.

It has an Encyclopedia of Applique number---

37-298. My source was a Prudence Penny column in an old newspaper.

UPDATE: I found a picture of the Prudence Penny quilt, not in the paper but

in a booklet called Old-Time Quilts, a catalog of antiques from a 1927 show the Seattle Post-Intelligencer put on.  The catalog calls it a moss rose. Is this the same quilt as the one that Julie & Linda showed.

Collection of the Wisconsin Historical Society.

This might be one of the most sophisticated versions.

The additional embroidery indicates it was

meant to be a moss rose, a popular garden rose in the mid-19th century.

The buds and leaves have a mossy fuzz.

Old-fashioned moss rose

Quilt alternating two rose blocks

The patterns vary but have scalloped layers of pink and red to

indicate layers of rose petals.

Ileana had one for sale on eBay alternating blocks with

white squares for fancy quilting.

Molly at Fourth Corner Antiques showed a potted rose.

 This one looks like there is white space between the pink and red layers but

that is a blanket stitch

(Very mid-19th-century technique)

The design has relative in the rose family

Moss Rose by Susan Black Stayman, Collection of

the Helen F. Spencer Museum of Art. Slashed reverse applique

instead of pink and red layers

And several in the fruit family---Perhaps a strawberry from a Pook & Pook auction.

Here's a later 19th-century green fading to gray and tan.

The last, latest version is simple enough to provide a digital drawing

you could use as a pattern. Double the size here for a 18" block.

See Susan Black Stayman's quilts here:

http://collection.spencerart.ku.edu/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&siteId=1&module=artist&objectId=19865&viewType=detailView&lang=en&actionListenerClassName=ch.zetcom.mp.presentation.tapestry.util.customCode.ActivateDetailTabPos2ActionListener

Broken Stone

Elleretta found this photo and wanted to know the pattern name.

It's difficult to see the repeat block but it's familiar.

The quilt in the photo looks like silk but it's hard to say.

The pattern was published in 1931with three names:

Aunt Martha called it Broken Stone & Lover's Quarrel.

The Rural New Yorker called it New Wedding Ring.

You don't see many examples

Here's one from about 1935 that looks like it was inspired by the Aunt Martha design.

The quarter circles in the corners make almost a perfect circle.

The curves make a complex design---but it's not THAT hard to piece.

Here's one with sashed blocks. Hard to date from the photo.

BlockBase will draw you a pattern any size.

Here's a Quick Quilt version of 16 blocks.

A 10 inch block fits nicely on 8-1/2 x '11" paper.

Here are some templates from BlockBase.