Ladies' Dream and Chestnut Buds

Ladies' Dream, 1930-1940,

Mary Etta Bach, Philadelphia

 American Museum of Folk Art

http://collection.folkartmuseum.org/view/objects/asitem/People@788/0?t:state:flow=41090b7f-0f5a-483b-928e-94b81ac496d3

Mary Etta Bach followed the pattern sold by Scioto Imhoff Danner

for her Ladies' Dream quilt

Scioto Imhoff Danner stitching on a Ladies' Dream block

This may have been Mrs. Danner's most popular pattern.

Quilters often used her bowknot border and color scheme 

Although Kelly Cline found this top done in pink.

Mrs. Danner noted that the patterns she sold were inspired by antiques. She left no notes or antique version of the Ladies' Dream but there are earlier examples of the pattern with pomegranate or buds rotating around a central shape. She may have been inspired by a similar quilt.

Some similar designs with 8 rotating design units.

Nancy Cabot called it Pumpkin Blossom in the 1930s.

UPDATE: Wilene Smith writes that a pattern like the Ladies Dream #14.843 was published at least three times in Kansas. 1) by Mrs Danner in 1932, 2) by Mary Lee patterns as Pomegranate and Bow Knot Border Design in 1933, 3) by Capper's Weekly April 8, 1933 as Bluebird Nest or Bluebird Home.

http://quilthistorytidbits--oldnewlydiscovered.yolasite.com/mary-lee-quilts.php 

I have a few photos of pomegranate shapes in a circle but with 12 units rather than eight. These do not have a number in my Encyclopedia of Applique. I'm writing in #27.9 in my copy, page 100.

Quilt attributed to Grandmother Tarleton in Mecklenberg County

North Carolina. Photo from the North Carolina Project & the Quilt Index.

This North Carolina version has twelve buds or fruits around a central sunburst. The descendant who brought the quilt for documentation did not know much about her mother's family but a little online detective work reveals that quilt was probably made by Rachel Deese Tarleton (1862-1933).

The quilt in the Quilt Index.

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4B-82-BD1

Her grave at FindaGrave:

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=73496983

The Benton County, Oregon, Historical Society has another example

with twelve rotating design units. In the center a double ring of hexagons.

Little information was included with the donation, but it looks

to be a late-19th-century quilt by the way the green pomegranates are

fading to a dun color. Note the hexagon ring in the center.

And I'd bet it's Southern---Tennessee???

http://www.bentoncountymuseum.org/index.php/collections/cockrells-quilt/pomegranate-wheel/

More hexagons in the center in this

one recently offered on eBay.

 The Quilts of Tennessee project found two similar quilts with hexagonal centers.

This one from the Thomas family, who called it Chestnut Bud.

A Horse Chestnut bud

And this one by Mary Ann Walker Trentham (1857-1920) from Rhea County.

See more about her in Quilts of Tennessee, page 58-9.

Here's some genealogy:

https://www.smokykin.com/tng/getperson.php?personID=I35439&tree=Smokykin

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4C-83-77E

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4C-83-2

Tim at TimQuilts bought a set of blocks on line

with the same hexagonal ring and star in the center and 12 pomegranates.

https://timquilts.com/tag/pomegranate-quilt/

Confederate applique quilt made by 

Susan Robb,1861-1862. Chicot County, Arkansas

Collection of the Museum at Texas Tech University

I'm reminded of Susan Robb's Civil War quilt.

http://worldquilts.quiltstudy.org/americanstory/node/6268

Free Pattern for Flying Swallows & the Winner

Two weeks ago I showed some photos of this block

Flying Swallows or Circling Swallows

BlockBase #3758

https://encyclopediaquiltpatterns.blogspot.com/2017/07/flying-swallows.html

The Give Away is over and BRIDGET is the winner of an Arnold's Attic jellyroll. She was the last to comment within the official time period.

Thanks to all commenters.

Here's the free pattern for a 12" block.

Rotary Cutting Instructions

'

A - Cut 4 squares 4".

B - Cut 1 square 6-1/4". Cut diagonally twice to make 4 triangles. You need 4 triangles. 

C - Cut 16 squares 2-3/8". Cut each in half diagonally to make 2 triangles. You need 32 triangles.

D - Cut strips 1-1/2" wide. Cut 45 degree angles to make diamonds which are 2-1/4" on the sides. You need 24.

Here are the rotary cutting instructions from BlockBase.

I modified them to make it easier to cut and find the pieces.

I did these sketches using Metropolitan Fair fabric

plus some background.

A 12" block is rather small for so many pieces, but I chose that size because it would work with JellyRolls. You might want to make it 16" or 20"---it's easy to recalculate in BlockBase.

In the comments someone suggested hand piecing.

Good for EPP, English Paper Piecing too

Carolina Mystery Pattern: Plume Circle

Quilt from eBay.

An unusual pattern.

Classified as 8 identical arms in the design elements.

There aren't a lot of these 8-armed designs as

they don't fill up the square block too well.

The corners are empty.

This design is quite familiar to pattern historians

as a regional Southern design from the last half of the 19th century.

The North Carolina quilt project gave it the generic name

of  Plume Circle Design.

Very similar quilt from Cindy's antiques.

Often done in two colors, solids---prints rare.

Reverse applique slashes in the spokes, usually two curves.

It looks like the pattern might be cut from folded paper like a snowflake.

Mary Caroline Rhyne, NC Project & the Quilt Index.

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4B-82-C9A

But it is amazing how close some of these are indicating that

an actual pattern was handed around.

In my Encyclopedia of Applique it's #15.31

My source called it Snowflake but what

that source was I don't know.

This one looks to be mid-19th century. It is one of four

in the collection of the Lexington County Museum in South Carolina.

A little extra: a pinked edge along the outside of the petals.

They showed all four a few years ago.

Instagram post on the "Carolina Mystery Pattern."

A lot of bedcoverings in an auction.

The print border is uncommon.

One slash per petal unusual too.

Skinner's Auction sold this Georgia example.

The fabrics are often prone to fading.

Here's a variation: additional leaves.

And one documented by the North Carolina project

with hearts. It was photographed in black & white.

The same quilt, I bet, in blazing color.

I found this photo at a guild show n tell I think.

Heidi brought it, saying it was from her

husband's family and it had a North Carolina project

label on the reverse.

Some examples have 6 arms rather than 8

The Charleston Museum showed this quilt in 2008.

The Press Release for the exhibit stated:

"Providing an unusual twist on the floral theme is the Sundew quilt made in the mid-19th century. Each square bears an unusual appliqué and reverse appliqué motif based on the Sundew or Drosera plant.

Sundew 

"These pink plants lure, capture and digest insects using tentacles covered with glistening drops of mucilage, resembling drops of morning dew. The plants are found in boggy areas in many parts of the world, but this quilt pattern has only been found on central South Carolina quilts (Lexington area)."

Oh, that must have made them mad in North Carolina. And Tennessee and Georgia. But I digress.

Sundew's a good name but it would be nice to know the source for the name. Did it come with a  quilt?

Larushia Turnbow Holman

The Tennessee Project & the Quilt Index

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4C-83-7F7

Another design option is to fill up the square block with additional flowers in the corners as Larushia Holman did. Her quilt was found in Tennessee. The family said:

"The quilter made this quilt to show. 

It won blue ribbons in county fairs. 

The maker, earlier in life, had connections with North Carolina."

Emma Poovey, January 23, 1877

Lincolnton, Lincoln County, North Carolina

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4B-82-E55

A tulip-like design added to one signed & dated and found

in the North Carolina project.

Erma Kirkpatrick and the other North Carolina historians

showed several regional designs in their chapter on applique in

North Carolina Quilts.

This one they called a plume-circle quilt.

"The pattern seems to lack a traditional name."

But one NC quilt owner called it Wonder of the World or World's Wonder.

More corner action

The variation with the corner designs have a different number

15.93.

Sarah Felker, Chattanooga, Tennessee

Found by the Arizona Project. 

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=67-EC-83E

Another digression. Note how that greenish blue dye

is migrating in terrible fashion. I'd guess hot storage

might aggravate that migration.

Very fancy variation.

No number

Flying Swallows

BlockBase #3758

All the quilt photos are from online auctions.

Ruth Finley called this variation on a star block

Circling Swallows, Flying Swallows and Falling Star.

The pattern is hard to see. Here's a BlockBase/EQ7 drawing.

In her 1929 index to patterns, Finley wrote that the pattern dates from about 1800, a very dubious date. I don't have any pictures of the design earlier than the 1930s or '40s. Finley was probably responsible for popularizing it in the 1930s.

The Quilt Index has 8 examples that I could find, dating from the 1930s to the 1980s.

So it's not a really old pattern, but one with a lot of potential.

Laura Wheeler pattern for "Wreath"