Dots and Modernism

Here's another member of the Polka Dot club

Nancy Cunard photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1929.

You may recall this photo of "The Polka Dot Club" in Larned, Kansas about 1900.
See my blog post about a year ago by clicking here:
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2009/11/polka-dot-club.html

Tilly Losch by Beaton

Beaton probably used this photo backdrop in other portraits.

It's so-o-o modern.

This woman may not look like the height of fashion today but she was styling in the 1890s.

Dots were important in the modern age when circles symbolized the ideal of ornament as simple shape.

Bette Davis

All dots and lines

Circles are graphically appealing. They really grab you.

No name for this four patch with a larger circle in the center and smaller circle in the corners (or vice versa).

String quilt wheel, about 1900

These late 19th-century and 20th-century quilts fit right into our modern revival.

String quilt snowball about 1950

String quilt

The string quilts are a combination of nostalgic homespun and modern graphics.

I'm always drawn to these circular designs, most of them variations of a four-patch with a quarter circle. Above are a few sketches from my BlockBase program of the patterns numbered in the 1490s and 1500s.

Names include Full Moon, Snow Ball, Base Ball.

All of which reminds me: I have got to decide where to go with this Fireball top.

Bigger or border? It's about 48" x 60" now.

I've heard that if the circles are white in this string quilt variation it's a Snowball. If the circles are red it's a Fireball.