Philadelphia Beauty or Four Frogs

The primary block in a remarkable quilt dated 1842

is this variation of a fleur-de-lis applique.

The quilt features a mourning block.

"Abby Leaming Forepaugh.

She is now dead. She cannot stir. 

Her lips are like the faded rose.

Which of us next must follow her

The Lord Almighty only knows.

Expired Jany 19, 1842

in the morning."

Abigail was 5 years old when she died, the daughter of Philadelphians John F. & Jane Leaming Forepaugh.

See more photos of this quilt in Stella Rubin's shop at 1stDibs.

https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/folk-art/quilts/center-medallion-mourning-quilt/id-f_677891/

The pattern was published as Philadelphia Beauty by the Ladies Art Company at the end of the 19th century.

The circular center was a perfect spot for a signature,

From Marilyn Woodin's collection

Quilt made for William Bryant Stewart and Elizabeth Sheppard Stewart,

 Plainfield, New Jersey.

 Newark Museum

http://www.newarkmuseum.org/search-our-collection

The Stewarts' quilt features a similar block in the center and another variation in each of the corners. Rather than being cut from one piece each of the fleur-de-lis, each corner shape is cut as a single piece in two different fabrics - red and green.

Much like this version...

...in a sampler that was sold in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

about ten years ago. The shapes in the border

seem related to fleur-de-lis too.

Quilt dated 1852

Ruby McKim about 1930 was the first to publish the design as Fleur de Lis, French for lily. The single flower is a standardized image that once represented French royalty,

which is traditionally repeated in a half-drop set

forming a diagonal grid.

From an 1869 quilt made in Illinois

The four-way mirror image repeat design we see in American quilts went beyond Philadelphia.

Baltimore Album Quilt in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art

Contributors used a variety of geometries, all based on the four-way symmetry. 

Baltimore Album top dated 1844 made for Susan & Henry Underwood,

Smithsonian Institution.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_556493

The Ladies Art Company published a couple of related designs.

If it's green it might be Four Frogs.

If it's red---

Lobster according to Florence Peto and Delores Hinson.

Blue.....

Blocks might have no central shape.

Add an extra dot in the center.

Or cut stars for a central shape.

From the collection of the International Quilt Study Center & Museum.

#1997.007.0836

And in this unusual block that looks to be about 1900:

Four hearts.

Print this out at 8", fold an 18" square of fabric into

quarters and cut out an applique to fit on a block 20" or larger.

It seems many people cut their own pattern.

The Criswell Quilt from the

 Chester County (PA) Historical Society's collection.

http://collectorwithaneedle.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-next-layer-chester-county.html

Rising Suns & Twirly Balls

Red & white quilt sold at an online auction.

BlockBase #3390

A combination of whirling spokes and spiky ring.

The Ladies Art Company catalog published the pattern

about 1890 as Rising Sun.  The red and white quilt

might have been made from their pattern.

Ruby Short McKim published it in her

Designs Worth Doing book and also as a part of a

newspaper series of sampler blocks in the Denver Post in 1931.

Lynn has a collection of the McKim samplers, which was a popular design

in the early 1930s.

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2013/02/ruby-mckim-in-denver-post.html

The Rising Sun or Circle Saw pattern has been published several times.

McKim pictured the outer spikes in colored pairs.

Names include:
Wagon Wheel from Hearth & Home magazine in the early 20th century.
Other names: Wheel of Life and Circle Saw.

From the Kansas City Star in 1936

H.H. Ver Mehren's pattern company, which pattern

collectors call Home Art,

published it as Wheel of  Life in the 1930s.

But quilters were using the pattern before it was published.

Quilt by  Elizabeth Guest Hall, DeKalb County, Georgia

1880-1910

BlockBase shows three variations differentiated by the number

of whirling spokes in the center. The quilts above all have 12 center spokes.

24 spokes by Eliza Ann Mattingly, Grayson County, Kentucky, about 1870-1900

From the Kentucky project & the Quilt Index

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1A-39-221

The Florida Project recorded one with 20 spokes dated and signed 1857 by Annie Wilson Hall of 

New York City. She was a professional seamstress. Read more about her here:

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=53-9E-165

The Texas Project recorded one attributed to Mrs Josiah Barrow

and estimated a date of the 1820s, but it was likely made later

by her daughter Harrie E. Barrow Gray who was born in

Alabama but moved to Claiborne Parish, Louisiana.

20 spokes

You can see why these all have a dot in the center.

20 curved seams meeting at one point might not be pretty!

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4F-88-C3

The Louisiana Project found one with 24 spokes by Sadie Wilson,

probably from 1880-1910, made in Claiborne Parish.

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1B-3A-666

I found quite a few in the Quilt Index files by doing a keyword search for 'rising.' Most were from Southern projects, and most were after 1880.

G.G. McMullen or McMillen

in Summer Grove, Caddo Parish, Louisiana

Another Louisiana find---20 spokes

probably 1850-1890. The family called it Dizzy Saw or Rising Sun

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1B-3A-2FA

16 spokes, found on the internet. Probably Southern,

Clues aside from the pattern: Solid fabrics.

Snapshot of a similar version with 20 spokes

 in the North Carolina Museum of History.

Online auction, 18 spokes.

Looking for a pattern? BlockBase will draw one for you any size

but you might want to buy one of these:

Karen K. Stone calls hers

Mississippi Wheel of Fortune

It's in her our-of-print

Karen K. Stone Quilts Book.

Too bad it's so expensive used.

Sue Garman called hers Twirly Balls & Pinwheels.

Her daughters continue to sell Sue's patterns.

https://www.comequilt.com/shop/Individual-Patterns/p/Twirly-Balls-and-Pinwheels-x1940832.htm

That's all the twirly balls for today.

Mennonite Stars: Whole Top Designs

Broken Star or Carpenter's Wheel quilt sold at Skinner's Auction.

Binney Collection.

Here's a pattern with no BlockBase number or name, poor thing.

The star block takes up the whole top, a Star of Bethlehem variation.

Date-inscribed 1887

Holstein Collection, IQSCM # 2003-003-0159

These are full-size quilts and should have been indexed under the category Whole Top Designs along with Lone Stars, Center Diamonds....

And these more common Broken Stars. This pattern, broken into many

diamonds is a relative, numbered BlockBase 4007.5.

Capper's Weekly called it Broken Star in 1925, and

that's the name that's stuck.

When I was organizing my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns I had no published source for a name for the simpler star quilts. And I hadn't seen that many examples. So it's not in there.

The large stars are a regional design, generally from southeastern Pennsylvania Mennonites, about 1880 - 1910. And usually of solid color fabrics. Here's a picture of one called Carpenter's Wheel

from America Hurrah Antiques and the Quilt Engagement Calendar.

An exception to the solid color rule.

The green and red patches are small-scale prints.

Broken Star  (80" square) from Phyllis Haders's collection years ago. 

The whites are prints.

By Mrs. Miller, Pilgrim Roy Collection

Museum of Fine Arts Boston.

More typical solids in green, red and chrome orange.

The pattern is commonly seen as a repeat block quilt. I found plenty of pattern sources and names for the smaller blocks.

#3807,  for example. was published as a repeat block  by the Ladies Art Company about 1890,

when most of these larger single star quilts were made. They called it Dutch Rose, which may have been a reference to the Pennsylvania Germans.

The standard names today are Broken Star or Carpenter's Star.

Pat & Arlen Christ Collection

The standard pattern for the large versions seems to be BlockBase # 3811a or 3811b, which has triangles in the corners.

I gave the Whole Top Version the number 

4007.3 and wrote it in on page 492 of my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.

Paulette Peters did a beautiful version in 1979. I found

this at the Nebraska project's files on the Quilt Index.

I was not that surprised to find very few earlier Mennonite

example in the Quilt Index. Few Pennsylvania files are up there.

You can still find this 1981 Yours Truly pattern for a wall quilt online.

Or have BlockBase print out rotary cutting instructions for pattern # 3811a on a large scale.

Wait a minute! I'll do it for you. Here are rotary cutting numbers for a 72" square block.

The program sees the pattern as more complex than I do. For some

reason it thinks the pieces set on the diagonal should be slightly larger. Why?

I'd ignore that.

Here's a summary:

The diamonds are cut from 7-7/8" strips.

The sides are 11-3/8" long.

E goes one way, F another, but I'd ignore that too.

The squares are cut 11-1/8". It gives you two

sizes 11" & 11-1/8". I'd use the larger measurement & trim.

The half-square triangles A are cut from squares cut 11-3/8", sliced into 2 triangles.

And the triangles B & C along the edges are cut from squares cut 16-1/4", sliced into 4 triangles.

73" x 76", online auction.

Early 20th century?