May Apple or Compass Flower

A new applique project for May.

It's a combination of piecing and applique.

Collector Mary Barton found a top fragment. When she

donated it to the Iowa Historical Society she called it Double Apple.

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=18-36-2B

The only published name I've found---

from the Farm Journal

Dated 1849 by Mary E. Mills

from Fourth Corner Antiques

One from Cindy's Antiques. There's a lot

of variation. It's a single pieced flower

with a circle in the center and an appliqued stem on one side.

From GBBest on eBay.

Leaves or buds may be along the edges.

The examples I have look mid-19th century.

I've got two from the Quilt Index.

This one from the Minnesota project

Another from Quilts of Tennessee

A relative

The latest version I found. Maybe 1880-1910.

Perhaps someone's pattern block

I wanted a pattern. I realized it's probably related to the structure of a Reel block and I could probably draw it myself.

So I found a pieced Reel block in BlockBase...

#P018

Imported it to EQ for a basic pattern structure

and erased and added lines.

Here's my EQ drawing.

I re-oriented it in Photoshop & added some applique parts from the antique examples.

You get the picture.

You can print these JPGs out at 8"

and then double them for a large block

Here are templates for an 8" block from EQ:

Print it on an 8-1/2 x 11" sheet.

I'd make it at least 150% larger.

(You'll have to redraw the seam allowances if  you enlarge it.)

In Kansas we have a sunflowery plant

called Compass Plant or Compass Flower

because it orients towards the sun.

Silphium laciniatum doesn't look much like the pattern

but you draw the quilt design with a compass so....

If you do a web search for Compass Flower

you also find instructions on how to draw overlapping

circles, which is probably where the old pattern comes from.

A link to some mathematics:

http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/57850.html

And here's another relative.

All appliqued.

Becky sends a photo of a May Apple, a shy little shade plant.