Northern Lily/Southern Rose Block 8

Seth Thomas Rose from the kit illustration.

Block number 8 in this sampler of regional applique is a Southern rose.

Seth Thomas Rose by

Barbara Brackman

 Seth Thomas clock

In 1929 Ruby McKim featured the Seth Thomas Rose design in the Kansas City Star saying that Araminta Daniel Kreeger drew the pattern for the original quilt in 1862. Daughter Fannie told McKim that Araminta copied the design from the face of a Seth Thomas clock brought to Missouri from North Carolina. Shelf clocks often were decorated with hand-painted scenes and florals.

Seth Thomas Rose by Ilyse Moore

The clocks were made in New England but Araminta and Fannie Kreeger were Southerners---Missouri Confederates. Another of Araminta's quilts was stolen from the bed by Jayhawking Yankees during the Civil War. (See a post about that quilt here: http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2011/10/40-order-number-eleven.html

Seth Thomas Rose by

debi schrader

It's an unusual pattern with the circles dotting the central flower.

 For my book

 Borderland in Butternut and Blue.

I made one like McKim's pattern, which had a vase.

Araminta's quilt has disappeared. Any quilts in the design seem to have been made in the 1930s after the pattern appeared in the newspaper. The one above is much like the newspaper pattern.

Here's one among a set of blocks for sale.

But I am always hoping to find Araminta's original.

Maybe this is it.

A big central rose, a footed urn, mid-19th-century---

recorded in the Iowa Quilt Project, purchased by a collector,

so no information about the maker.

See the whole quilt here at the Quilt Index

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=18-36-167

debi's

Back to the Northern Lily/Southern Rose Sampler.

Everyone is getting their blocks together. Ilyse used a triple strip border.

Jerri McReynolds used a green calico, a single strip.

debi set hers with alternating log cabin blocks. She started with a package of Layer Cakes from Civil War Reunion and added a few yards of a tan solid. She kept pulling leftovers out of her scrapbag, enough for a pieced striped border.

Susan Stiff used a print stripe for her inner border.

Next month the last applique block.

Northern Lily/Southern Rose Block 7

#7 Carolina Rose

By Ilyse Moore

The seventh block of the Northern Lily/Southern Rose applique block is based on a pattern seen in North Carolina. Ilyse used reverse applique for the center line on the leaves in her version.

Characteristics of this rare regional design include an unusual symmetry based on a single central flower topped by a triple floral. The leaves framing the floral are large and often serrated.  I gave it a  number--- 31.99 in my Encyclopedia of Applique. No one has had a family name for it.

Detail of one made in Alamance County,

North Carolina by Nancy Spoon Schoffner,

mid to late 19th century.

When the North Carolina Quilt Project published their book North Carolina Quilts in 1988 they had documented only four quilts in the design, all from adjacent Alamance and Guilford Counties. Since then more variations have been found.

By Susan Stiff

These are the kit prints from Civil War Reunion and the Bella Solids from Moda.

See Nancy Spoon Schoffner's version at the Quilt Index by clicking here:

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4B-82-389

And another version (courtesy of Kathy Sullivan) on a post last year by clicking here:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2009/12/chrome-orange.html

By Barbara Brackman

I used a Bella Solid yellow for the center line and did regular old applique.

I placed the block on the square to go with the other blocks in the quilt. If you wanted it to look more like the North Carolina originals you could line the stem and pot along the diagonal. You'd need to make the block larger too---Maybe 16" or 17"

By debi schrader

debi focus-cut the Union print from Civil War Reunion for her pot and did reverse applique on the leaves to let the crinkly linen-like background through. I had seen an antique quilt with the tiny pot so added that and simplified the original for the pattern.

A strange composition from the end of the 19th century.

The serrated leaves and triple floral have something in common with that Carolina pattern.

You can find the pattern and the kit for my applique sampler by doing a websearch for Northern Lily Southern Rose Moda.

Northern Lily/Southern Rose Block 6

Dixie Rose by Ilyse Moore

The sixth pattern in the Northern Lily/Southern Rose pattern is a Southern rose.

Dixie Rose by Susan Stiff

Detail of Dixie Rose quilt

 made by Sarah Williams,

Anson County, North Carolina, before 1860

The North Carolina quilt project found two examples of this pattern in their search for regional quilts, both made prior to the Civil War. The name Dixie Rose had not been published until their 1988 book, but that was the name that apparently had been handed down in one of the families. Note the use of paisley shapes for the leaves in this one.

See pages 82 and 140 of the North Carolina Quilts book by Ellen Fickling Eanes, et al.

And see the full quilt at the Quilt Index here:

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4B-82-E59 

This block was in a North Carolina sampler dated 1855, made for Laura Brown McCallum.

See the full quilt at the Quilt Index by clicking here:

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4B-82-D02

Judy Davis did a Dixie Rose for my Civil War Women book using paisleys.

The name Dixie Rose has been a part of Southern imagery since the War. Augusta Kortrecht wrote two popular girls' books Dixie Rose and A Dixie Rose in Bloom in the early 20th century, and O. Henry wrote a story called the Rose of Dixie. A websearch for the words reveals information such as one Dixie Rose Lester (born 1913) is buried in Paulding County, Georgia. You'll see a few recent birth announcements of 21st-century girls named Dixie Rose.

Dixie Rose by Barbara Brackman

I have all my applique blocks done now and I am thinking of a set.

Possibly side-by-side to make a wall hanging.

Brenda Papadakis included the Dixie Rose (at a tiny scale) in her Dear Hannah pattern several years ago.

Here's Susan's version of the finished Northern Lily/Southern Rose sampler,

 done in Civil War Reunion fabrics and Moda Bella Solids.

Delectable Mountains: 1812 Reproduction

Lately Arrived from London

Designed by Susan Stiff and Barbara Brackman

10" finished blocks; 76" Square

Above is the project quilt from my Moda reproduction collection called Lately Arrived From London.

Our inspiration was the pattern today called Delectable Mountains, a sort of medallion made from blocks.

The version above is from an online auction where blocks on point frame a chintz panel, probably finished about 1840. Examples date as early as the teens so it would seem to be an excellent design to recall the War of 1812 for the anniversary next year.

The basic block is a two patch cut in half diagonally.

 It can have any number of mountain peaks.

For our project Susan redrew the old block to make it scrappier.

With the medium-sized triangle broken up into three pieces it looks like a basket.

In all of her blocks the big triangle is medium or dark and the background is light as in the picture above.

I've been playing around with the block in EQ7.

Here the big triangle is light to match the background and it becomes the background.

To make the medallion set work you have to use an even number like 4 x 4, 6 x 6 or 8 x 8 block grids.This set leaves you with an empty area in the center but if you use the large chintz like the Seaflower the space  will not really be empty. It would be rather dramatic.

Quilters often filled that center area with a star. This antique has the blocks on point, the typical 19th century  set.

Here's a star in center with the blocks on the square. The easiest way to do this is probably to leave the big triangles off the four center blocks. Piece them to the sides of a star. With 10" finished blocks that center star should measure about  14-3/4" with the seams.

Above are the finished measurements. Add seams.

At the bottom of this page are instructions

 for cutting a star finishing to 14 1/4".

Quilters also put the blocks side by side, set on point.

Here's a detail of one from the 1840s or '50s with that buff and blue combination so popular then.

You could increase the complexity in the all-over on-point set by making half the blocks dark on light and half the blocks light on dark. You get a strip effect if you alternate them.

Dark on Light

Light on Dark

You could also set them on point in strips.

 The block really looks like a basket here.

Sawtooth Strip

I made this quilt 15 years ago or so. I was going to make a Delectable Mountains medallion but I got distracted. I turned the blocks into rectangles and stacked them up.

Part of the appeal in these patterns is the name.

The Delectable Mountains

The image comes from a Christian parable, an 18th-century book by John Bunyan called Pilgrim's Progress. Pilgrims named Christian and Hope came upon the Delectable Mountains from which they got a view of the Celestial City.

Click here to see the project pattern for Lately Arrived From London

http://www.unitednotions.com/fp_lately-arrived-from-london.pdf

And here to see more about the prints in the collection:
http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_lately_arrived_from_london.pdf 

The International Quilt Study Center and Museum owns several great examples of the Delectable Mountains pattern. Click here:

http://cdn.firespring.com/images/1a087e23-6326-4ddd-8199-50755f650da0.jpg

http://cdn.firespring.com/images/833949e1-cd44-4cd1-a795-4c7c022a12fd.jpg  

http://cdn.firespring.com/images/e11e3df5-a554-4337-b8fb-e8c01b0edf7d.jpg 

And here are examples from the Quilt Index

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=47-7B-A6E

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=47-7B-B58

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=46-7A-16B   

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4A-7F-DF

Cutting a variable star finishing to 14-1/4"

Corner squares - Cut 4 squares 4-1/8"

Large triuangles - Cut 1 square 8-3/8". Cut into 4 triangles with 2 diagonal cuts.

Small triangles. Cut 4 squares 4-3/8". Cut each into 2 triangles with one diagonal cut.

Center Square - Cut 1 square 7-4/8"

For these odd measurements you may have to do a little easing to get the star to fit the diagonal of the mountain blocks.