Hexagonal Blocks in Scrappy Prints

 

An interesting scrappy quilt from the Pat L. Nichols collection

at the Mingei Museum. Probably dates to about 1900.

Perfect for Charm packages made up of 5" squares.

The blocks are hexagons....long hexagons.

Pieced of 10 squares and 4 Half-Square Triangles.

BlockBase #282.5

The pattern was published about 1900 by Comfort magazine as Irish Chain, but their arrangement was set with alternating squares.

It wasn't a really popular pattern but you can find examples

made in that time period when blues, blacks and pinks were

so fashionable. 

I did a search in the Quilt Index for the "Brackman Number"

282.5 and found a couple of examples.

Wyoming Project

Mid-20th-century and even scrappier.

Iowa Project. 

More triangles, fewer squares with a four-patch alternating.

It's related to the far-more popular Ocean Wave.

Which is all triangles.

Not that old, developed in the 1870s...

Those blocks that aren't square get tricky to pattern.

 I was thinking you'd want to make the most of the 5" squares.

Like from a Ladies' Legacy Charm pack.

So here's what I came up with in EQ8, based on 4-inch finished small squares.

Cut 2 A squares 4-7/8"; then cut those in half diagonally.

Cut 10 B squares 4-1/2".

For the larger square C cut a square 6-1/2" finishing to 5-5/8".

I HAVE been wrong before.

There may be an easier way to get a similar effect

If the large squares have a seam in the middle it's a square block.

For the stacked-up version at the top cut the larger pink square 8-1/2"

Bridal Wreath Applique Quilt

 

Quilt by Wanda Buell Ross 

Nebraska Quilt Project & the Quilt Index

A popular late-20th century design, a wreath with a central heart design

and four hearts in the corners.

Ruth Willett, Michigan Project

The Quilt Index has a few of these, all stitched after 1949 when the pattern was first published by Marguerite Ickis in her book The Standard Book of Quilt Making and Collecting

Marguerite lived in New York City after graduating from Columbia University.

She worked for the W.P.A. and wrote a couple of books on crafts and quilts.

Bridal Wreath

After looking at a lot of applique blocks with hearts in the corners for our Ladies' Aid New York Sampler last year we can guess that Marguerite found this quilt in New York. It does seem to be one-of-a-kind if one assumes it was made before 1930.

Rebecca Schnekenburger's Ladies' Aid Sampler with hearts linking the album blocks.

See the pattern links for twelve of the blocks here:

https://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2022/01/ladies-aid-album-sampler-links-to-free.html

It's too bad we don't have a color picture of the quilt Ickis patterned.

Hard to say how old it is.

The Wyoming project pictured two.

These were probably made in the 1960-1990 period after Dover re-published her book and sold quite a few copies. Most quilters seem to have drawn their own variation from the photo in the book. It's good beginner applique with simple shapes. You'd get darn good at leaves and hearts by the time you finished a dozen blocks.

If they used her pattern drawing they would have placed the interior hearts on the

north/south axis of the block instead of the diagonal shown in the old quilt.

The pattern also appeared in a magazine, but I don't have a source.

I thought we could use a better pattern based more on the original quilt.

Print this out on 8-1/2" x 11" paper. Note the inch square for sizing.

Marguerite's wreath circle is quite narrow. You might want to make it a 3/8" finished bias strip.

She called the design Bridal Wreath. We have no idea where her information came from (aside from her imagination---a common reporting method at the time).

 

Read more about Marguerite Ickis at these posts:

She spent her later years in Dennis, Massachusetts:

https://friendsofdennisseniors.com/marguerite-ickis/

From the unknown magazine

And I believe she was the first inductee into the Quilters' Hall of Fame:

https://quiltershalloffame.pastperfectonline.com/byperson?keyword=Ickis%2C+Marguerite

Chintz of Shells/Swags

 

Irish Chain quilt from the Rocky Mountain Quilt Shop.

Perhaps 1840s.

An interesting quilt in a transitional style.

Taste in quilts was changing in the years1835-1845. 

Furniture-scale prints like the border here were becoming

passé. Smaller-scale prints in greens and reds were

newly fashionable.

An older look:

Coolidge Family, Massachusetts project & the Quilt Index

Skinner Auction

Online Auction

Quilters combined the older looks with the new: Neat pieced blocks

in primary colors with busy floral borders.

Turkey red mignonettes (cute little prints) with chintz

Copake Auction from a Connecticut estate

It's hard to watch taste (yours & everyone else's taste) change while you have a huge stash of out-of-fashion prints.

People must have had piles of furniture-scale prints, all probably English imports.

A transitional style it seems was a solution to the problem. I'd date these to 1830-1850.

Collection of Ileana Villazon

Do notice these quilts have one very popular shell chintz in the borders.(I picked the quilts for the chintz to show you how available that print was.)

I've found nine different colorways of the floral in a shell set. White plus colored grounds that

could be added to the white. There should be a tenth---a chocolate brown

not so red as the Plum.

The repeat fits in a shell with swags: A bouquet, a floral swag 

and a decorative swag with a bow made

of shall we say peanut-like shapes.

A repeat one could cut out and applique for a border

as in this quilt from the Montgomery County [Maryland] Historical Society.

Attributed to Sarah, Ann & Mercy Holland

Photo from the Baltimore Album Quilts Facebook page.

When you look closely at the peanuts you see there are two versions.

Maybe the same print with the blotch green added ---

with a few new details.

Maybe ten years ago Blue Hill did a reproduction

in cooperation with the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.

In several color ways

I still have many yards. Makes a great border.

Marge Pearson's border for our Hospital Sketches

BOM a few years ago.

And Julee Prose's