A Tulip Pattern in High Colors

"Flower of Spring"

or "A Tulip Pattern in High Colors"

or "Floral Patchwork"

Or "Wild Rose."

It is amazing how many of these pieced flowers from

the 1930-1970 period are out there.

Not an easy pattern to piece.

Especially since the patterns I've found weren't very good

Including mine in BlockBase which is pretty lame.

It wasn't so badly drawn in my original Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.

It looks a lot like the original but it didn't digitize well at all.

"A Tulip Pattern in High Colors"

Kansas City Star 1949

This might be the pattern people used.

"Flower of Spring" Kansas City Star 1936

Different proportions...Are there enough pieces?

And "Wild Rose" from the Laura Wheeler syndicated column in 1936---similar.

But somehow people made the quilt.

This is the best I can do for a pattern today.

Print this out 8" square. Draw some lines.

Good luck.

Two Block Quilts: Snowballs Plus

Here's a graphic antique quilt that alternates two blocks.

On the left a snowball kind of block with the corners cut off;

on the right a nine patch of stars

The quilt was on the cover of the Quilt Engagement Calendar

thirty years ago. And I thought it was one of a kind.

But here's the same pattern.

I found this antique in an issue of Quilters' Newsletter

about ten years later. Same design but the two

blocks are on point.

It's a more complex variation of BlockBase #1001,

which has been well-documented

and has many published names.

A nine patch plus a snowball.

Here's another variation---How old I can't tell

from the tiny picture, but it's a double nine patch

alternating with the snowball.

Another double nine patch and a busy blue print 

From the Massachusetts Project and the Quilt Index:

Double four-patch alternating with a red framed snowball

from about 1900

Same idea, lots more squares.

I suppose you could alternate any block with the snowball.

Here it is with Winding Blades from about 1900.

BlockBase #1339b

Although some are going to work better than others.

Rolling Star alternate block, top from about 1900

BlockBase #3805

I was browsing through Snowball patterns

in the Quilt Index and came across this one from the Arizona Project

 alternating a Spiderweb and a snowball.

BlockBase #2726

The straight seams look like curves.

Alternate applique:

Tioga County Historical Society Collection

Or do it in strips?

A Real New York beauty

Detail of a quilt in the collection of the

 International Quilt Study Center and Museum

By or For Ann. From the Ardis & Robert James collection.

Thought to have been made in New York about 1840.

EFW 1858

There have been some discussions about this pattern lately.

It seems to have been a regional favorite in mid-19th-century New York where they also liked the pieced signature style at the top.

The geometry is common in applique because it fits a square so well.

• 8-lobed flower in the center
• 4 large motifs in the corners
• 4 smaller motifs at North, South etc.

Four Plus Four

There are 3 variations in my Encyclopedia of Applique. all numbered 16.2

Names are few.

The Art Institute of Chicago has a blue and white version they date as 1861.

In their old black and white catalog they called it Forest and said it was from New York.

The Nancy Cabot column in the Chicago Tribune published a name in 1937. Columnist

Loretta Leitner called it Red Oak and said the quilt she had seen was turkey red and white.

Here's the more common color scheme 

with that regional New York tree applique border.

This one dated 1847 was sold at New York auction house Copake.

Note it's missing the north/south applique.

It's in Sharon Waddell's collection now.

Same variation. Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Possibly made in Rhinebeck, Dutchess County

http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/13876

Another from a New York auction house

A well-worn red oak?   

Debra Grana has a red version with the tree border.

The quilt was a popular exhibit when she showed it

at the Vermont Quilt Festival a few years ago.

Sharon Waddell, who is an authority on New York quilts,

showed another from her collection in Vermont.

The reds in this example from an online auction look to be 20th century

Print this out 200% at 16" square and you have a pattern of sorts.