Minimalism From the Bauhaus

 

We've been talking about minimalism over at QuiltCon.

The quilt must have been folded and exposed to light more

where the red has faded--or maybe it was a different dye lot.

Strict modernists like the Bauhaus bunch from Germany a hundred years ago dictated 3 acceptable shapes:                     
Circles, squares and triangles.

If you are an AQSG member you can watch our AQSG booth presentation from last weekend here at the organization's YouTube site. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFtuVRy2vck 

Looking for a suitably modern/antique quilt I came across this one from an online auction. Squares and a flattened circle. Kind of inspirational. 

Related to these patterns in the new BlockBase+. We changed the coloring in the new version and this is a pretty page. Oh, but I digress.
Anyway I don't see the exact pattern so I am going to use #2673 to draw a 10" pattern. The circle will be rounder in the pattern than in the vintage quilt.

Circles and squares, how modern can you get? I named it Bauhaus

after the German school of design.

I am learning the new BlockBase+ and a new version of Photoshop on my new computer. It will be worth it in the long run but right now....

Waaah!

And speaking of Waah! here's an UPDATE. I found the published pattern. 

Miss Hattie Thompson made up a set of four (to show how it should be shaded) and sent the block to Comfort magazine in 1911.
Rosette.

 I doubt Hattie ever heard of the Bauhaus. The claret colored quilt above is not set counterchange fashion but I bet Hattie was the source.

I drew it in my new third edition of the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns and numbered it #2672.5.

Star of the East or the North

 

Barbara Schaffer is using Gay Bomer's pattern for the Ella Maria Deacon quilt.

And it seems to have worked out fine. No need for an appliqued circle in

the center to cover the 16 intersecting seams.

Not everybody such a precision piecer. Here's an abandoned project

from the mid 20th century.

Who was responsible for unleashing this patchwork challenge on the world.

Quakers, that's who.

The earliest image I have of the design is in the 1842 Deacon album, attributed to

New Jersey Quakers.

Ella Maria Deacon Quilt, New Jersey

Art Institute of Chicago

And another quilt probably made by the same women....

Quaker quilt

Conner Prairie Museum

https://ulib.iupuidigital.org/digital/collection/CPQuilts/id/229

The block is #3745 in the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns and BlockBase

The earliest published pattern seems to be from the Rural New Yorker farm

magazine in 1932.

The following year the VerMehren pattern company

syndicated it as the North Star Quilt.

Many stars from that company were designed to cover the

whole bed, but "Hope Winslow" says this is a  repeat block to be sashed.

It is such a striking pattern that many were probably inspired to

try it. There's probably a whole ward at the Orphan Blocks home

for those with--shall we say---issues in the center.

Laura Nownes

It's nothing for some of today's piecers who tend to call this a Split LeMoyne Star.

I think your best bet would be fussy cutting striped fabric. Make a regular old Lemoyne Star and line up a hard edge stripe so the line runs down the middle.

Of course you have to find a stripe wide enough. Then you have only 8 seams meeting in the center.

Rainbow stripe

A Ten Inch Pattern

Fussy cut or not.

Finding the right sized stripe is the major problem. Check in your stash to see if you have something wide enough.

More about the Quaker quilts

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2017/03/quaker-album-quilts.html

Neat Little Boxes

 

Block 1900-1920

Pattern?

Drat! It's not in the new Encyclopedia and won't be in the new

BlockBase scheduled to be out next month. In fact this is the only version I've ever seen of it.

It should be in a group of neatly geometric designs of five squares forming an X.

The pattern drafter in me loves this page.

Easy to draw---all variations on #2775

#2775

Quilt from about 1840, a long time before the Orange Judd Farmer newspaper

called it Double Cross in  1913.

Should be next to this #2777 Grecian Square

from the Rural New Yorker in 1932,

again years after this quilt.

So it has a should be number #2777.5

Relatives

At the Depot from the Clara Stone catalog about 1910

You could break up those squares with an interesting geometry.

#2796. Ruby McKim called this one

Wild Goose in 1929 but the quilt probably dates

to 1880-1900.

#2802 Crossroads to Texas or

Kentucky Crossroads

Or whatever fits in those boxes.

Melting Snowball

Flowering Snowball

I've been looking through the Encyclopedia for blocks to alternate with

sampler blocks and spent some time looking at Flowering Snowball (#3081) as a possibility.

See a post on the pattern history here:

https://encyclopediaquiltpatterns.blogspot.com/2018/08/flowering-snowball.html

It's a great pattern for those who like curved piecing as Rita at Red Pepper Quilts shows.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/redpepperquilts

The seam lines in #3081 will line up with a nine patch.

I exported the block from BlockBase into EQ and drew the nine patch of equal size squares. Then drew up a quilt alternating blocks.

That works nicely in terms of geometry.

And has possibilities in design.

Another way to add to the Snowball is with another Snowball.

The block with the corners cut off  to make an octagon in the center.

Lines up well.

And makes a more interesting overall design.

Recolored for a sunny February day as Melting Snowballs.

Any of these variations on the curved Maltese Cross idea could

be combined with another block if you lined up the seam lines....