Almira's Square in a Square

 

A few weeks ago I posted a design for my repro collection Ladies' Legacy for Moda based on a square in a square block.

From the Oregon project & the Quilt Index

And then I came across this quilt top by Alvira L. Empey Kinsman  (ca. 1870-?) of Iowa who dated it 1905. 

I had to find out a little about Alvira. Alvira Empey was born in Minnesota. She married for a second time in 1905 (Is this the date?). The 1910 census in Des Moines tells us that she was 38 and had been married to Richard M. Kinsman for 5 years. Richard worked at a grain elevator as a grain buyer. 

Iowa Grain Elevators---the tall buildings on the plains

Her first husband was W. F. Smitt or Smith whom she married in 1900 in Minnesota.

She and Richard lived in Woodward, now a neighborhood in greater Des Moines.

Richard's first wife Hannah had died leaving him with four children. Together they had 2-year-old Ray and would add one more child Clara Mae in 1911.

1910 census

Back to the quilt top, which is such a great composition of simple parts:

I drew it up in EQ8 as a 9x9 quilt of 10" finished blocks giving

you a 90" x 90" quilt. You need 36 pieced squares in a square and

45 unpieced blocks cut 10-1/2" (25 red squares, 20 white.)

I shaded it in different ways using the basic red, white and blue color

scheme Almira used and the Ladies' Legacy reds, whites and blues.

Here I added some pinks trying to create a twisted ribbon look.

It's two different colored blocks.

Pinks

Pattern drawn in EQ8

The square in a square block is a theme for Ladies's Legacy projects. 

See Becky Brown's Nine Diamond quilt here:

https://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2021/02/ladiess-legacy-nine-diamond.html

The file for Almira's quilt at the Quilt Index:

https://quiltindex.org//view/?type=fullrec&kid=40-38-304