String Stars & Variations

 

"Lone Star" 82" x 80," 1890-1925

By Ellen Smith Tooke Vanzant & Mattie Tooke Morris, Trigg County, Kentucky

The Kentucky Project recorded this large string star quilt by a mother/daughter team.

https://quiltindex.org//view/?type=fullrec&kid=8-5-179

Those of you who like your ducks in a row will be glad to hear that the string-pieced star covering the whole quilt top has a number in the most recent editions of my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns and BlockBase+.

4005.8

Amelia Etta Atkins, Tennessee project & the Quilt Index

https://quiltindex.org//view/?type=fullrec&kid=22-18-1272

The pattern seems to have been popular in the South from about 1890 on.

Mid-20th century example from the West Virginia project

Tennessee project, by Annie Belle Hodges Brown

 So, now we have a number for these whole-top designs of string-pieced diamonds.

But just when you think you have those darn ducks organized you realize....

The ducks are amuck.

Here's the BlockBase+ page of Whole Top Designs,

Which is missing many variations on that string/strip Lone Star.

International Quilt Museum #1997.007.0946

Like what if the strings and strips are wobbly?

John Sauls's inventory

Stella Rubin's inventory, perhaps

Julie Silber's inventory

Really wobbly?

Julie Silber's Inventory

Just call it a #4005.8 variation

What if there are extra stars in the corners?

Cindy Rennell's inventory

More posts on the 4003.8 variations here:

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2014/07/string-stars-on-large-scale.html

https://encyclopediaquiltpatterns.blogspot.com/2020/12/string-pieced-lone-star.html