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Monday, February 15, 2021

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

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

3 comments:

  1. Challenging....but what a nice visual. Thanks for the lesson! Denniele

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  2. Ah, just another quilt block that I do not intend to try at my age. Glad others have fun with it though.

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  3. I just checked back at that Quaker post you referenced, and I think I have found the inspiration I need for alternate blocks to finish a quilt. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete