Reels, Hickory Leaves and a Soul Knot

 

A popular pattern both pieced and appliqued

As a pieced design the pattern's been published often

with a variety of names as shown in my Encyclopedia of

Pieced Patterns & BlockBase. 

Ruth Finley called it "The Reel"

It also appears in my applique Encyclopedia.

Lately I've been looking at the appliqued versions

where quiltmakers added to the basic design with variety in the additional motifs.

The pattern is one of the earlier American block designs appearing about 1830. In her catalog of the Briscoe Center's quilt collection Katherine Jean Adams discussed a quilt from Joyce Gross's collection, noting that their example seems to have originated in New Jersey.

The Eachus/Hoopes quilt is similar to this common design with

three small leaves added to the North/South axis.

Katherine Jean Adams

I'd guess the design originated in Pennsylvania among German immigrants

and their descendants. These three early examples seem to have come from an

extended Lutheran family in Bucks County/

I am drawing reel structures for my Pop In Applique series, volume 3.

Am I going to sew a Reel/Hickory Leaf?  Did it once in the 1990s.

Photoshopping easier.

The variations are many....

And reels seem to have evolved into other designs.

Read more about the early Pennsylvania versions in a long-ago blog post:

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2016/10/triplets-schleifer-kichlein-fraktur.html

Read Del-Louise Moyer's lengthy post on those quilts:
"Fraktur Quilts from the Schleifer-Kichlein Family"
https://alyssumarts.com/2016/09/04/fraktur-quilts-from-the-schleifer-kichlein-family/