QUILTS & FABRIC: PAST & PRESENT


Saturday, November 12, 2022

Drunkard's Path - Nonesuch Variations

 

Nonesuch
BlockBase+ #1469

Related to its BlockBase neighbor
Chain Links.

Both from the Aunt Martha pattern company.

And also published in the Kansas City Star in 1940 as Jig Saw Puzzle,
sent by Violet Sory of Arkansas.
This design is different from other Drunkard's Path variations in that
you have to show 36 squares to get the right repeat.

It's number 6 here in Carrie Hall's Romance of the Patchwork Quilt.
She also calls it Love Ring.

Karen's Quilts Etc. blog. She was trying to decide
how to set her squares.


If you showed just a grid of 16, the usual pattern structure,
you'd wind up with a simpler repeat.

Interesting but not what Aunt Martha meant.

Well, I can't figure out exactly what Aunt Martha meant. Did she want 
you to repeat her block of 36 squares side by side?
Violet from Arkansas wrote that she recommended one work
"from center out, in a progressive square," for her Jig Saw Puzzle.

Like this popular variation, a medallion format, inspired by the pattern below.



The Famous Features syndicate showed this set in their booklet
Covered Wagon Quilts, probably in the 1940s.

Sometimes pieced in two contrasting fabrics as Violet & Famous Features suggested.

Here's Famous Features setting diagram, lower half of quilt.

Leora Wilson Cart, mid 20th century
West Virginia Project& The Quilt Index

Recently sold at a Mennonite Relief Auction

Color queen Tula Pink's recent "Acacia Drunkard's Path"

As a block design Nonesuch was often done scrappy fashion in 1930-1980 style.

 I'd guess most of these were inspired by Aunt Martha's pattern.

International Quilt Museum from the James Collection


Bonnie K. Hunter posted this one a while ago:


More two-color examples.


A few more interpretations

Pepper Cory showed many names and a variation
called Moorish Design that includes plain squares
creating an airier look.





And my EQ8 sketch in Best of Morris blues.
4" Finished Squares, 96 of them,
 make a quilt without borders 96" square.

The repeat, 36 squares
x 16

1 comment:

  1. These are such beautiful quilts. Love them all, especially Bonnie Hunter's scrappy version and your last EQ8 layout.

    ReplyDelete