Spinning Triangles

Pattern with plenty of potential. 

I found this vintage example on Camille's Pinterest Page

As a square block it's BlockBase # 2754, published in Capper's Weekly about 1930 with no name that I've been able to find.

It was in Carrie Hall's book as Spinning Triangles and here's her version

 in her block collection at the Spencer Museum of Art. She pieced it as an

octagonal block.

Eight-sided blocks are in BlockBase

as 296----

Again Evening Star from the Kansas City Star.

Evelyne Foland showed it as an octagon in the Kansas City

Star in 1930. She told readers to make an octagonal pillow, which may have

reduced reader frustration levels.

But many stitchers joined the octagonal block with a small square.

The Arizona Project found one made by Mary M. Rinehart.

Here the spacer square is blue.

There seems to be some variety in the number of triangles.

Wonderful mid-century composition: gray spacer squares

with blue triangles to fill out the edges.

I have been tempted to piece this (EPP-style over papers) but

I'd organize the triangles into square blocks with a half-square triangle in the corners.

BlockBase #2736 

"Spider Web Gone Awry"???

Great example from about 1875 to 1900

offered by French Antiques on eBay last year.

I was surprised to see the pattern in a quilt this old...

Once I started looking I found another earlier version of #2736,

this one from about 1900 in the Quilt Index,

courtesy of the Rhode Island Project. The variegated color

certainly has some appeal.

Sashing changes the focus.

I have learned the hard way (all geometry is learned the hard way for me) that the basic triangle is NOT an equilateral triangle. It is a tall triangle, which repeats into  a tall triangle.

If you begin with an equilateral triangle the block becomes a hexagon, 

Hexstatic by Ali Winston

NOT an octagon.

(In the current age of lies I am totally denying that I ever made this mistake.)

Print this out and you should have a triangle 3" tall.

An isoceles triangle. Use a half-square triangle as the second piece in the corners.

Katie Clarke Blakesly shows you the basics of piecing a simple block here:

http://swimbikequilt.com/2011/08/summer-sampler-series-evening-star.html

Two contemporary color variations by Joyce Gieszler who

calls it Grandma's Surprise.

And here's a page of isoceles triangles at Paper Pieces:
https://www.paperpieces.com/search/?q=isoceles

Bachelor's Puzzle: All Y Seams All Day

A complex pattern

Look in a corner of the quilt and here is the block:

BlockBase #2537

Bachelor's Puzzle

or Pinwheel in the Kansas City Star in the 1930s.

Easier to see the design with sashing.

A tied comforter from the Michigan Project & the Quilt Index,

by Judith Green

No Y seams if you add seams, just a lot of pieces, though.

Another way to look at it from Moore About Nancy

http://nancycabotsewalong.blogspot.com/2014/02/bachelors-puzzle-quilt-block.html

Moon Rise

A great looking quilt in chrome orange and indigo blue dots

from eBay seller gb-best a while ago. Looks about 1890-1920.

What is the pattern? I don't believe I've ever seen it before.

Looks like a big orange moon.

First I decided the block was this nine patch maybe set with a strip alternating balls, squares and triangles.

 

Or maybe this is the block, a star with a circle in the center 

Set with the same sashing.

Doesn't make much sense. 

Kind of like Clara Stone's Moon & Star but with pieced sashing?

Then I recalled my usual plan of attack, which is to look for the repeat in the corner.

Up in the top left corner right under the white border.

A nine patch with a nine patch in the center, and curves in the corner.

I drew it in Electric Quilt

It's related to those Jacob's Ladder designs that were so popular about 1900.

Repeated it 49 times.

But that's not it.

7x7 set, 12" blocks = 84" square

Tried rotating every other block 90 degrees. That's it.

It's not in BlockBase but I'm giving it a number 1798 and I'm calling it Moon Rise.

Should be on the Equal Nine Patch with Curves page.

Here's a free quilt pattern.

Cutting a 12" Block

A = Cut 2 squares 4-1/2".

B = Cut 4 squares 4-7/8". Cut each in half diagonally to make 2 triangles. You need 8 triangles.

C = Use the templates. Cut 2 each.

D = Use the templates. Cut 2 each.

E = Cut 9 squares 1-7/8".

Print this sheet out 8-1/2" x 11"

Well, years later I read the comments and see that Kathy says it's Thelma's Choice.

Here's Carrie Hall's version from the Spencer Museum of Art collection.

She might have made this up herself. It actually is in BlockBase with an odd number

H044.

Wreath of Leaves: The 1.20s

A beauty from Stella Rubin's inventory

Encyclopedia of Applique #1.22

Basic applique block--- a lot of leaves.

In my Encyclopedia of Applique the index begins with wreaths and leaf blocks, numbered in the 1.20s.  

Variations on 1.22, a relatively popular antebellum album block

From an auction at Cowan's about 7 years ago.

1.22 in the corners

Variation of #1.21

These are among the simplest applique blocks for learning some skills

in curved shapes. In this one, currently for sale online, you don't even have

to worry about points.

Half red/half green---a bud

A 1930s variation, no number.

A little awkward

Another awkward version, probably from the 1960s when applique

skills seemed to crater.

You can do better than that!

You could add some fruit but that's a whole different number.

Flowers make it more complex.

As complex as you like.

Addie Little seems to have needed to fill up the empty space.

See her whole sampler, dated 1862, in the Museum at Michigan State University

here at the Quilt Index:

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1E-3D-FB5

You need a leaf template or two, some folded bias and a circle template

(I like an old 45 record.)

Stars always good.