A Wedding Ring Chain

An unusual pattern.

Both of these vintage examples from eBay seller

GB-best

I've had a lot of questions about the pattern over the years.

And few answers.

Here's the four-block repeat

And here's the block.

It's NOT in BlockBase. I guess it should be in the category

of Miscellaneous with curves, but it's not.

It must have been a published pattern. All the photos of vintage examples

seem to be from the 1940s, '50s, maybe 1960s.

Some better pieced than others, but looking pretty much the same.

Until lately:

Cathy Kirk's Chain Reaction from Denyse Schmidt prints

Cathy Kirk sells pattern and templates for Chain Reaction:

https://squareup.com/market/quilting-cowgirl

And I do believe Nancy Landon might sell a pattern

for Unchained Melody at her Cactus Quilt Shop.

http://www.cactusquiltshop.com/index.html

The templates come in three sizes.

Ivan and Lucy made a version in 1930s reproductions:

Which they call Chain Link.

Here's their Etsy shop:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/IVANandLUCY?ref=condensed_trust_header_title_items

But it must have been a published pattern with a name seventy years ago or so.

UPDATE:

Someone called my attention to a vintage example that quilt dealer Julie Silber posted a few months ago. It looks to be appliqued...and round. Roundish.

UPDATE: I should have asked Merikay Waldvogel before I posted this.

It's from the Laura Wheeler/Alice Brooks syndicate. Link of Friendship

published in 1944.

And one more version:

Flowering Snowball

Debby had a question recently about the pattern in this mid-20th century quilt.

I have several photos of quilts that look to be 1950-1980

Here's the block

The little pattern magazine Aunt Kate's Quilting Bee published

it as Flowering Snowball in 1965 and that may be the source. But

it was a little magazine. I get the feeling the design may have been

published earlier.

The curve is pretty easy to do and the effects are terrific.

I do have a photo of  one quilt older than the 1950s

All these are from online auctions.

I'd guess this one is Turkey red with a couple of

browns from the 1880s or '90s.

And here's an even older variation.

That red print could be 1850-1880

But it's not exactly the same block. This version with no center square

has no BlockBase number. 

Lewis & Clark

I showed this lone block from my collection on my Facebook page a while ago. It's #2922

in BlockBase with several pattern sources and names.

Ladies Art Company Pattern #146

Joseph's Coat

One popular source was the Ladies' Art Company. The St. Louis Company sold patterns and finished blocks through the mail beginning about 1890, which may be when this block was made. Is my lone block one of the cloth blocks you could buy from them through the mail?

Another source was the Clara Stone syndicated pattern company from Massachusetts,

which called it Lewis & Clark.

I've got a few other examples in the picture files. Here's one in a top from about 1900.

done as a block. It's an nicely balanced block with a lot of shading possibilities.

Three Southern quilts from the Quilt Index, made about 1880-1910:

Detail of a Tennessee version made by Cintha Jane McFarland Reed.

The perfect Southern quilt:

Bold colors

Triple Strip Sashing

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4C-83-A78

Same idea by Elizabeth Whitley in North Carolina

Block on point!

Unknown maker, seen in West Virginia

It's been published several times.

It was in Carrie Hall's 1935 book as Joseph's Coat.

This is the block from the Hall collection at the Spencer Museum of Art.

She used a lot of color although her purples have faded to gray. The use of the Ely & Walker calicoes is kind of unusual for her. And so is that bad seam on the right side. I wonder if she made this block. But it is in her block collection.

Here it is in the Famous Features booklet Bible Favorites.

I had BlockBase make a Quick Quilt of the pattern and it certainly is an interesting all over set with the dominant light star here echoed in a darker red star. I tried some other ideas by overlapping duplicates of Hall's blocks.

Interesting secondary patterns here too. How would you construct it?

A different way of looking at it, rotated so the yellow squares are on the square rather than on point.

You could construct this variation with this as the block.

It's BlockBase #2039 King's Crown.

And this as the set.

Well it's cool if complicated.

See free pattern for a 10" block of the original Lewis & Clark/Joseph's Coat.
http://quilterscache.com/J/JosephsCoatBlock.html

Pincushion Variation

An interesting pattern from the 1930s.

Not in BlockBase.

I've analyzed the pattern several ways.

You could look at it as a square in a square block with curves. The blocks set in a white sash with a purple cornerstone.

It should be near #2684 New Moon

and #2685 Dolly Madison's Workbox

but it's not. Notice the extra seam in the outside curved piece.

So it might be a new number 2684.5.

Or you could look at it like this, where the purple square

is in the middle of the block.

But that has no number either.

I have another example of this design, also from the mid-20th-century.

Polka dots always a good choice.

How to draw a pattern? Here's an EQ sketch of the corners.

Or maybe like this.

Or both

Print this PDF for a 12" block.

Update: I found the pattern, one of the elusive Alice Brooks designs:

Friendship Chain