Kentucky Paw-Paw by Elsie Ridgley
Over at the CivilWarQuilts blog we are doing a Kentucky Classic applique sampler this year. The blocks for the BOM come from some mid-19th-century Kentucky quilts and those Kentuckians seem to have been fond of Pomegranate imagery---did they grow pomegranates in 19th-century Kentucky?
BillieJo Rondi Lesley's purple palette.
I'm calling them paw-paws in Kentucky.
A Rose tree
Elsie's William Morris prints
Becky Brown went off on her own tangent...
See posts with the free patterns for Kentucky Classic here:
I thought I'd look around for more Pomegranate designs. I found many ways to arrange and set the fruit blocks.
Kansas Museum of History
Top by Mary Jane Scruggs of Nicodemus, Kansas last quarter 19th c.
Tennessee project & the Quilt Index
Michigan State University/Cuesta Benberry Collection
For Hattie Dorsey Moore by her sister Mary Stanford, 1876
Denver Art Museum/probably Kentucky
But surprisingly little variety in the fruit itself.
You can add a couple of flourishes
but it's generally two layers or three.
Round or squat.
The major creativity is in the "top-knots."
A design transferred to quilts straight from German-American traditional arts.