A CLOUD OF QUILT PATTERNS: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PATTERN IN BLOG FORM UPDATES & ADDITIONS BY BARBARA BRACKMAN

Monday, November 23, 2020

Grandma Dexter's Orange Peel

 


Question:
Pattern name. Found in friend Linda's estate. Merikay looked it up
in my Encyclopedia of Applique and it's not in there.

Hmmm. It's familiar and I stared at it for a while. Who would draw
up a pattern like that ? It should be pieced but it's appliqued.

Grandma Dexter, that's who.

Sure enough, here it is as Orange Peel.
The problem is that it's not in the applique Encyclopedia where
it belongs, but in the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns where
for some obscure reason it is #3539 and it says "applique."



It's related to the many pieced patterns like this but.....

Grandma Dexter did not do the needlework world any good with
her pattern books.


People who had few sewing skills tried to figure out what "she" meant. Her theory was that all you
needed was a few pattern pieces and you could create a variety of blocks by appliqueing what would have been better pieced.

This was an efficient use of paper

Eek!

And don't be calling in with any questions or complaints.

Jonathan Winters in his slightly terrifying Maude Frickert personality
captures the whole idea of a diabolical art department masquerading
as your Grandma.

1934 Wilmington Delaware News Journal

And to complicate matters I see I have this one "Painted Snowball" indexed as coming from the Nancy
Cabot column in the Chicago Tribune. This is not Nancy Cabot? But who is it? 
UPDATE: Wilene Smith tells me it is Nancy Cabot from one of the syndicated patterns.


If I'd a been working in the art department at Grandma
Dexter's I'd have drawn this up in Electric Quilt and
shown them what it is supposed to look like. Here's an
8" pattern.

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