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Monday, May 31, 2021

Flower Ring from the Kansas City Star

 

Quilt probably made from a Kansas City Star pattern
in the 1940s or '50s.

Mrs. S.L. Heacock of Hartford, Kansas (near Emporia)
mailed the design to the Star where it was published as 
Flower Ring on May 29, 1940.

It's an unusual version of the Pickle Dish, just like a Double Wedding Ring but with spiky
points rather than the usual wedding ring arcs. BlockBase #459.2

Double Wedding Rings have truncated points.

Ms. Heacock may have had an old quilt in the Flower Ring design.

Here's a similar pattern from the book Texas Quilts: Texas Treasures called Pine Burr or Pickle Dish, attributed to Elizabeth Ruff Mitchell in Texas or Georgia. Quilt shows the fading and color schemes typical of the 1880-1920 era.

I'd guess a fabric designer working for a feedsack company might have seen the Kansas City Star design as there is a similar pattern in a feedsack designed to be re-used as a pillow case with a border included.

As the pattern is in BlockBase+ you can print it out any size.
An 11" version fits on an 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of paper.

A Challenge!


Monday, May 24, 2021

Wheel of Destiny

 

A lilac quilt from the mid-20th century in an unusual pattern.
I've only two photos of vintage quilts in the Wheel of Destiny design. 
(BlockBase+ #2345)

Here's another from the same time period.

The pattern appeared in Farm Journal magazine, but I don't have a date.

The magazine sold patterns for many years. This one for a four-patch pinwheel
came in the mail in 1933.

Wheel of Destiny seems quite modern.

The purple quilt is shaded counterchange fashion with darks in one block light in the next.

I tried that out in by exporting #2345 to EQ8.
A two-color quilt.

Three colors.
Pattern for a Nine-Inch Block from BlockBase+
You could use this to make templates or use
the triangle as a paper piecing pattern.

The Quilt Layout application in BlockBase+
shows several ways to set the block.

In a horizontal layout

And a vertical strip with a half drop repeat.


Monday, May 17, 2021

Setting Sun

 

A while ago Leota sent me a photo of a 1930s-40s top she had

A complex pieced Dresden Plate
It wasn't in my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.

We found it as Setting Sun, a Laura Wheeler
newspaper pattern---those pieces in the corners are 
"tiny clouds."

So when we revised the Encyclopedia I sent the programmers
a sketch


And here it is as #1488.3 in both the book version
and BlockBase+ the digital version.



The Wyoming project and the Quilt Index showed two quilts made from the pattern. This owner who bought the quilt attended one of Merikay Waldvogel's Laura Wheeler workshops and knew the pattern name and source.

Because it's in BlockBase+ you can print out a pattern----templates drawn for you. I'm giving you a drawing of 1/4th and you can use this as templates for a 15" pattern. This might be the perfect pattern for your 3-D printer. Plastic Templates.


Monday, May 10, 2021

A Zephyr

 

Did you see this wonderful pattern in an eBay quilt last month.

A 1930-1950 string quilt in a pattern I've never seen before.

It's a square block alternating one that's flipped over.
The arcs intersect perfectly---not easy to do.
And then the edge pieces are string pieced.

I've never seen it with or without the string piecing.

---------------------


UPDATE:
Found this one in the Quilt Index brought in by the maker who made it in 1939.
Winnie Cook Fox (1918-2005) of Alexander County, North Carolina
Winnie called it Snake Trail and said she got the pattern
from her mother Susan Lackey Cook.


Like many Southern quilts the pattern is
first-rate, the fabrics third-rate. Winnie said
she used sacking fabrics, tobacco, sugar & flour.
The gray was once green.
------------------
I'd guess it was a published pattern but who?
We'll call it Zephyr, a gentle breeze.

I tried drawing it in EQ8 and it looks pretty good until you
put the blocks side by side and flip every other one.

My drawing doesn't integrate the curves as well 
as the quilt does.

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



Monday, May 3, 2021

Floating Fans

 

Cover of the current QuiltMania 

Fabulous pattern!

Seems to be the only one in the picture files. A pair of fans or wedding ring arcs.
Have a relative in the picture files. In this one the arcs look appliqued to a white background.

Left over parts ...

Looks about 1940-1960 for the fans.

The cover quilt looks older, maybe 1900-1930.
It might be pieced or appliqued or both.

Well, you could piece it, but it's not in BlockBase+. I need practice in EQ and Photoshop so I spent some time drawing a pattern---not well but here it is.