QUILTS & FABRIC: PAST & PRESENT


Wednesday, March 5, 2014

A Few Feathered Stars: Miscellaneous Centers

Online Auction
Late 19th-century
Once you've figured out the basic feathered star pattern
you can draft anything for the center square

May Louise Weeks
from the New Jersey Project at the Quilt Index
mid-19th-century

Four-Patches above

From the Nebraska History site

Victoria Caldwell, Rhea County, Tennessee
from the Quilts of Tennessee at the Quilt Index
mid-19th-century
A square in a square

Eliza Shields
from the Illinois project at the Quilt Index

This one's from Marie Webster's 1915 book labeled Feather Star

It has a 5x5 grid in the center.

Similar with a more complex center---the 5x5 grid
is cut into triangles

Sofia Noel
from the Quilts of Tennessee at the Quilt Index

Feathered center square in a Feathered Star above

You will notice many of these complex stars come from Tennessee where there seems to have been some real competition to create an interesting variation of the basic pattern.

Belle Specht,
from the Quilts of Tennessee at the Quilt Index
mid-19th-century

An Ohio Star above

Online Auction

From the LaConner Museum collection
Railroad Crossing in the center

Online Auction

Another Feather Star from the Illinois project
and the Illinois book History from the Heart. 
This one is a late-19th-century Civil War veterans' memorial.

I am not the first person to notice you
can put anything you want inside a feathered star---
Marsha McCloskey's been drafting patterns for quite a while.

7 comments:

  1. What a lovely collection of centers. I so enjoyed seeing this group of feathered stars. Thanks for your research, Barbara!

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  2. Beautiful quilts.

    There is a reference to a generic online auction with out a link, or am I missing something?

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  3. Incredible collection! Some great quilts and some I've never seen before. Such inspiration. Thank you Barbara!!!

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  4. Just fantastic projects.I`ve never tried this block!!

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  5. Yummy! I like when Marsha puts feathered stars inside the feathered stars, inside the feathered stars! That one's on my bucket list!

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  6. I think of Marsha McCloskey when I see a Feathered Star ... she is a master and has two beautiful books from the 90s with great patterns and ideas! And these are such beautiful examples. Thanks for the inspiration. This is next on my (long) list!

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