Live Oak Tree

Live Oak Tree pattern in a quilt attributed to

 Ella M Booye Hickman (1865-1921) 

Atlantic County, New Jersey,

 found in the New Jersey project.

See page 112 of New Jersey Quilts.

Here's Ella's Find-A-Grave file:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/209702552/ella-m-hickman

When they published the New Jersey book they didn't know Ella's name---she was a friend's mother-in-law. But Ella looks to be the woman.

The tree is on the diagonal---upright if the blocks

are set on point.

From the Quilt Index

Her probable pattern source is Live Oak Tree from the Ladies' Art Company (#222). Ella probably made the quilt in the early 20th century or perhaps the 1890s when the LAC catalog was widely available.

Newcomb Looms gave away these premiums of

small cards; advertisements for patterns. Their number 223.

My BlockBase #849 old version

The LAC also sold a tree on the north/south axis of the

block. "Peony" was a lot more popular design, if we look

at quilts from the time.

Not many people made the Live Oak Tree---75 diamonds in each block.

Here's a top from an online auction a few years ago

It's too bad her green fabric was so fugitive. Looks to be the

same time as Ella's, early 20th century.

Variation in the tree trunk. Middle 20th century, maybe the

1960s? Another online auction.

Lona Bell Frame Rexroad (1892-1978) West Virginia Project

The family thought this might have been made in 1904 when Lona

was 12 but that seems unlikely based on the difficulty. She married

in 1920, a better possible date.

The trunk is different in Lona's quilt.

See page 9 of West Virginia Quilts & Quiltmakers.

She may have had a Ladies Art Company catalog and liked

the trunk on the Peony better.

I wonder how Lona's rectangular quilt with diagonal trees fit on the bed.

A 10-inch block will fit on a single sheet of paper. Here's a pattern printed from BlockBase.

New BlockBase+ any day now.

UPDATE: It's out today Thursday March 11!

And on sale through the end of the month.

Or buy a pattern Acorn's Promise from Kerry Stitch

Lovenda's Patchwork Feat

 

The Indiana project came across this quilt brought

in by a descendant's in-law who said she'd inherited it and

it was made by Lovenda Sampson (1859-1937)

 of Sand Fork, West Virginia in Gilmer County.

https://quiltindex.org//view/?type=fullrec&kid=39-40-1333

The photo is none too good but you can see it is a version of Seven Stars in a Circle, which is what the family called it---Southern style pattern. What makes this quilt a feat of drafting and sewing is that
the stars are based on 5 rather than the usual 6 points. And she has three sizes of 5-pointed stars in each circle.

She was darn good at geometry or knew someone who was.

I picked a few five-pointed stars in BlockBase (the old BlockBase) and exported them to EQ8

Did a little redrawing in EQ and then I was stuck.

So I exported the drawing to Photoshop and started duplicating layers and moving them around. And plopped it in a circle. One problem with these Seven Sisters in a Circle is that the star parts have straight seams and the circle fill-in has curves, which makes for a slightly wobbly circle.

Here's an 8 inch pattern. Double it for 16 inches. 

I'm updating these posts I wrote before I got my copy of the new BlockBase+. Here is the 5-pointed star page with 5 additions in the new program.

Minimalism From the Bauhaus

 

We've been talking about minimalism over at QuiltCon.

The quilt must have been folded and exposed to light more

where the red has faded--or maybe it was a different dye lot.

Strict modernists like the Bauhaus bunch from Germany a hundred years ago dictated 3 acceptable shapes:                     
Circles, squares and triangles.

If you are an AQSG member you can watch our AQSG booth presentation from last weekend here at the organization's YouTube site. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFtuVRy2vck 

Looking for a suitably modern/antique quilt I came across this one from an online auction. Squares and a flattened circle. Kind of inspirational. 

Related to these patterns in the new BlockBase+. We changed the coloring in the new version and this is a pretty page. Oh, but I digress.
Anyway I don't see the exact pattern so I am going to use #2673 to draw a 10" pattern. The circle will be rounder in the pattern than in the vintage quilt.

Circles and squares, how modern can you get? I named it Bauhaus

after the German school of design.

I am learning the new BlockBase+ and a new version of Photoshop on my new computer. It will be worth it in the long run but right now....

Waaah!

And speaking of Waah! here's an UPDATE. I found the published pattern. 

Miss Hattie Thompson made up a set of four (to show how it should be shaded) and sent the block to Comfort magazine in 1911.
Rosette.

 I doubt Hattie ever heard of the Bauhaus. The claret colored quilt above is not set counterchange fashion but I bet Hattie was the source.

I drew it in my new third edition of the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns and numbered it #2672.5.

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

https://ulib.iupuidigital.org/digital/collection/CPQuilts/id/229

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

Neat Little Boxes

 

Block 1900-1920

Pattern?

Drat! It's not in the new Encyclopedia and won't be in the new

BlockBase scheduled to be out next month. In fact this is the only version I've ever seen of it.

It should be in a group of neatly geometric designs of five squares forming an X.

The pattern drafter in me loves this page.

Easy to draw---all variations on #2775

#2775

Quilt from about 1840, a long time before the Orange Judd Farmer newspaper

called it Double Cross in  1913.

Should be next to this #2777 Grecian Square

from the Rural New Yorker in 1932,

again years after this quilt.

So it has a should be number #2777.5

Relatives

At the Depot from the Clara Stone catalog about 1910

You could break up those squares with an interesting geometry.

#2796. Ruby McKim called this one

Wild Goose in 1929 but the quilt probably dates

to 1880-1900.

#2802 Crossroads to Texas or

Kentucky Crossroads

Or whatever fits in those boxes.

Melting Snowball

Flowering Snowball

I've been looking through the Encyclopedia for blocks to alternate with

sampler blocks and spent some time looking at Flowering Snowball (#3081) as a possibility.

See a post on the pattern history here:

https://encyclopediaquiltpatterns.blogspot.com/2018/08/flowering-snowball.html

It's a great pattern for those who like curved piecing as Rita at Red Pepper Quilts shows.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/redpepperquilts

The seam lines in #3081 will line up with a nine patch.

I exported the block from BlockBase into EQ and drew the nine patch of equal size squares. Then drew up a quilt alternating blocks.

That works nicely in terms of geometry.

And has possibilities in design.

Another way to add to the Snowball is with another Snowball.

The block with the corners cut off  to make an octagon in the center.

Lines up well.

And makes a more interesting overall design.

Recolored for a sunny February day as Melting Snowballs.

Any of these variations on the curved Maltese Cross idea could

be combined with another block if you lined up the seam lines....