Patterns: Known and Unknown

Every once in a while I put some pieced patterns up that I haven't seen published. The design above is from a quilt offered on an online auction.

The symmetries are odd and the striped fabric

 makes the four patch more intricate. The fabrics look mid-20th century.

In my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns it's closest to patterns numbered in the 1280s or 1370s, four patches with diagonal seams, but it's not been published in the usual 1880-1970 sources.

(BlockBase is the digital version of the Encyclopedia)

Here's another odd block separated by sashing that looks to have been stitched in the early 20th century.

The basic structure is what I call a 9x and it should be in the Encyclopedia and BlockBase numbered 2770 to 2800.

But it's not.

Here's a simple block, sort of like a pineapple/maltese cross with only one row around the center square.

A good idea, especially when shaded in counterchange fashion with what's light in one block dark in the next.

This one should be #2626.5, but it's not in the Encyclopedia. Maybe I missed it when I was indexing blocks, maybe it was published in a magazine with a small circulation, maybe some clever seamstress made it up.The fabrics in the top look to be end of the 19th century, probably 1880 to 1900. It would be a nice block to show off an intricate print like a William Morris piece or a chintz.

Wait a minute, here's an unsual pattern that I could assign a name and a source to. Nancy sent this picture of a top she bought, two fabrics---that 1930s Nile green and a multi-colored print.

I did find the block. It’s #2323 Twin Darts published in Farm Journal in February, 1945.

The piecer also used a counterchange color scheme, which makes it more complex.

I generally find designs prior to 1970 in the Encyclopedia and BlockBase. It's the patterns I can't find there that are so fascinating to me.

Unknown Pattern in an Old Photo

Photographers sometimes hung quilts and tops as backdrops for photos. This picture was offered in an online auction a few years ago, advertised as from Texas. The clothing looks early 20th century and the quilt seems to be a unique pattern although it's a lot like this basic snowball or baseball pattern.

#1505

Same shapes can be arranged in different ways.

#1504

In the variation above the quarter circles in the corners of each block are all pink and the center circle is unpieced and of various colors. 

These patterns (#1504 and 1505 in BlockBase) were given names like:

Baseball or Boston Puzzle from the Ladies' Art Company about 1900

Circle Design from Grandmother Clark in 1931

Winding Blade or Marble in the Kansas City Star in 1937 & 1934

Steeplechase or Bow & Arrows from Ruth Finley in 1929

The bow shape can also be pieced of strings,  but string quilts were not often published and named in the pattern catalogs and books.

The quilt in the photograph is string pieced.

But there is this odd stripe across the snowballs.

Here are some links to Quilt Index photos of snowball/baseball variations. One from Tennessee:
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4C-83-245
Another from Louisiana:
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1B-3A-1D2
And one from Merry Silber's collection
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1E-3D-1150

I couldn't find anything like the one in the old photograph, so I've filed it away in the massive file labeled "Patterns I Can't Find Anywhere."

Unknown Patterns

It's a good day when I can find a quilt pattern in my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.

This quilt that looks to date from the early 20th-century is # 1504c. Ruth Finley in her 1929 book called it Steeplechase.

I like my ducks in a row.

Or my geese in a row as in this late 19th-century quilt.

The problem is...

Those ducks and geese are hard to corral. I cannot find the above design in my Encyclopedia.

It doesn't really upset me.

I actually like to come across an unknown design. And there are lots of them out there.

Pauline sent snapshots of these two pink quilts. She couldn't find them in my Encyclopedia and neither can I.

They are a lot like Nine-Patches in there, but not identical.

Why are the patterns unknown? Or unindexed?

1. 
   
   The maker may have made them up or adapted them.
2. 
   
   They may have been published in a magazine that I didn't index.
3. 
   
   They may have never been published, but handed around from quilter to quilter.

I imagine number 3 is the problem with the green and red geese variation above. Because it's not really a patchwork block (the block is plain, the sash is pieced) it never fit nicely into the magazine format or my block ID format. Here's another similar construction sent by Gail.

It looks like it's constructed in blocks....but nevermind. It's the kind of thing that drives me crazy. You guys figure it out.