Block Mystery

BlockBase #2065

UPDATE: Karan notes I have mixed some apples in with the oranges here. The block above is #2128 published as Double X #4 from the Ladies Art Company about 1890.

And Wilene notes the whole post is Wrong, wrong, wrong:

She says:

"This design has a long published history beginning as Unnamed in Farm and Fireside, March 1, 1897; then Edith's Choice in Hearth and Home, July 1896, and as Broken Dish the following month. Also again Unnamed in The Family published in Springfield, Ohio, October 1913; Cup and Saucer in Farm and Home, March 1, 1915; as unnamed friendship quilt in Oklahoma Farmer Stockman, ca. 1915-1920; Corn and Beans in Comfort, April 1923; Double X in Woman's World, April 1925; Sugar Bowl in Rural New Yorker, ca. 1930-1937; Wild Ducks in a June 1932 pamphlet from Needlecraft Supply in Chicago; Double X's by Nancy Cabot, April 10, 1935. All these have the square in the corner."

Here's a pattern that was quite popular about 1900-1920

This is a different block--note the corners are squares here, triangles above and below.

The block was often made up in blue and white.

A typical set of blocks in indigo blues

Other colors popular at the time were also used.

It's a rather odd construction, a square inside a square inside a square and then a strip of squares and triangles along the outside.

You don't find it any earlier than 1890 or so, the decade when these blue, gray and red quilts were so popular---also the decade when magazines began publishing quilt patterns. But I've never been able to find any published reference to it in the years when the design was fashionable.

This top may have been made between 1925 and 1950.

In 1930 Needlecraft Magazine published the design as Broken Dishes and in 1938 the Kansas City Star,

called it The Chinese Block Quilt. So it was published at least twice, according to my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, but by the thirties new fad patterns had appeared and no one was very interested in making it anymore.

The mystery: How was it passed around in the 1890-1925 years if it wasn't published?

 It was certainly popular enough. If you do an online search in the Quilt Index for the Chinese Block you find 15 different examples all made in that era (ignore the one dated 1865---it's misdated.)

Click here and type Chinese Block in the "Pattern Name" box and then search.

http://www.quiltindex.org/search.php 

And the other mystery: What did the women who made it call it?

Here's a variation without the squares in the corners.

 No published source or name for the pattern.

If you were looking to make a reproduction from the 1900-1920 period this would be a great design.

Rotary cutting instructions for a 12" finished block from BlockBase

A - Cut 4 blue squares 2-1/2"

B - Cut 4 light and 4 blue squares 2-7/8". Cut each in half with a single cut to make 2 triangles. You need 8 light and 8 blue triangles.

C - Cut 4 light rectangles 4-1/2" x 2-1/2"

D - Cut 2 blue squares 4-7/8". Cut each in half with a single cut to make 2 triangles. You need 4 blue triangles.

E - Cut 1 blue square 4-1/2"

F - Cut 1 light square 5-1/4". Cut into 4 triangles with 2 diagonal cuts. You need 4 triangles.

For setting ideas look at the variations at the Quilt Index. The blocks are usually set with sashing or alternate blocks rather than side by side.

I found this photo online in the 2004 records of the Iowa-Illinois Quilt Study Group.

 With its lime green and Turkey red color scheme it might be late 19th century.

The biggest mystery here is why didn't I notice the detail of the corners in the blocks. All I can say is

Nevermind.

Two of a Kind

Kim sent a photo of this basket quilt she saw at an antique shop.

 Isn't it strange to have 2 handles? That's like Sunbonnet Sue having two feet.

Then while scrolling through the Quilts of Tennessee pictures on the Quilt Index I found this.

A trend?

See the original quilt from about 1900 at the Quilt Index by clicking here:

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4C-83-6C4

Of course baskets often do have two handles.

Unknown Patterns: Swirl in a Star & Pickles

Kate found these blocks on an online auction. She's guessing they might be 1920-30. With only solid fabrics to go by it's tough to date them. I'm not that familiar with that solid tan the color of a paper bag. The red LOOKS to be Turkey red, but that only can tell us 1840-1940.

I'd say early 20th century from the photos.

See her blog post at Empty Field by clicking here:

http://empty-field.blogspot.com/2010/09/never-seen-one-like-this-before.html

Pieced swirl, photo courtesy of Kathy Sullivan

Kate's mystery pattern is fascinating. It looks like there is no seam between the points and the inner swirl in half the arms. I've never seen it before but it does remind me of the pieced swirls in a post from last February. Click here:
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/02/mystery-pattern-swirl.html

And speaking of "complex patterns with curves done in solid fabrics, often in the South about 1900":
Here's an update on another mystery pattern I showed last June.

Karen Alexander had seen one on eBay a while ago and saved the picture. It looks to be Turkey red and white and like the others possibly early 20th century.

See the earlier post by clicking here:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/06/unknown-pattern.html 

Suzanne Antippas alerted me to one pictured in the 2001 Quilt Engagement Calendar. This may be the oldest. Dealer Stella Rubin estimated its age at 1860. With the vining border and red and green color scheme it looks typical of that era. She called it Rising Suns. See Stella's online antique shop by clicking here:

http://www.trocadero.com/stellarubin/catalog/Antiques:Decorative_Art:Textiles:Quilts310.html

Linda Franz of Inklingo has drafted the pattern so you can print the templates on your fabric (or on freezer paper or template material if you prefer.) Click here to see more at Inklingo.

http://www.lindafranz.com/blog/clamshell-pickle-is-ready/

Linda's mock-up

She's calling it a clamshell pickle.

I have spent a few hours scrolling through the thousands of Southern quilts on the Quilt Index and found no examples. I did have a lot of fun, however.

It's easy to scroll through the pictures using their new Grid display method of 60 thumbnail photos per page.

Go to this page in the Quilt Index

http://www.quiltindex.org/browse.php 

Choose Collection, say West Virginia Heritage Quilt Search. Choose Display Method: Grid.

Hours of entertainment!

But no swirly stars or clamshells with points.

Hexagonal Pineapples

I'm always fascinated by patterns that never made it into print.

One is this variation of the pineapple or windmill blades design based on a hexagonal block.

Years ago I bought the quilt above in Illinois. It's pieced of wool and silk blends (delaines and challis) and each log is stuffed with a strip of batting. I am guessing it is from the 1870s. Moths have munched on the wools.

Merikay Waldvogel has one too. Here she is at the Quilters' Hall of Fame exhibit she curated when she was inducted. Hers looks to date from about 1910. It has a faux patchwork (cheater cloth) back and fat, puffy wool ties. The hexagonal blocks are set with red triangles.

Quilt dealer Laura Fisher has a top with plaid hexes in the center and just two rows of logs.

The few I've seen are wool and silk, blends but here's one that looks to be 1870s or 1880s in cotton prints. I saw it in an online auction.

The trick here is to rotate the hexagonal blocks so the dark areas line up with the darks. The hexagonal blocks are set with hexagonal plain blocks.

I don't know where I found this tiny picture.

My skills in spatial relations are sorely tested with some of these patterns.

The one I own at the top has baffled me for years.

Somehow she made hexagons with 6 different sides and rotated them so that the green side matched another green side, the red side matched another red side, etc.

I have no recommendations about where to find a pattern or how to draw and plan these.

My BlockBase program is all square blocks for a reason.

Quilt dealer Stella Rubin has 2 of these on her website now:

http://www.stellarubinantiques.com/items/161860/enlargement161860sra.html

http://www.stellarubinantiques.com/items/809797/enlargement809797sra.html

And Betsey Telford-Goodwin has a silk version

http://www.rockymountainquilts.com/files/antiquequilt_q8664.php

Unknown Pattern

Years ago a friend bought this quilt, a pattern I couldn't find published anywhere. It's related to a Pickle Dish with similar arcs pieced of triangles (or almost triangles). But it has a completely different geometric structure, like a clamshell or fan quilting design.

Pickle Dish

See more about Pickle Dish on my June 14th post.
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/06/pickle-dish.html

And click here at the Quilt Index to see a great Pickle Dish in the collection of the North Carolina Museum of History.
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4B-82-844

The quilt in the unknown pattern looks to be about 1880-1920 by the way the greens are fading from the light. Those fugitive green dyes tend to be after 1880. In the lower right hand corner some one has patched an area with a piece of 1930's Nile green. The chrome orange (what we call cheddar) is also fading and splotched, color loss often caused by washing.

The pattern doesn't appear in my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. For years I figured the quilt was a one-of-a-kind design but recently I found two more in online auctions.

This one looks to have been chrome orange and fugitive green too, although arranged in the opposite fashion. The dyes are really faded here, probably a combination of hard washing and too much sunshine.

Again this one looks to be 1880-1920 by the dyes.

Here's a later version---by the mixture of bright colors with white I'd guess after 1930.

And I noticed one in the collection of the International Quilt Study Center and Museum. Click here to see it:

http://www.quiltstudy.org/includes/photos/quilt_database/large/1997_007_0399.jpg?PHPSESSID=bf577b00549c9bc75d5e8453048f8943

They call it Sunrise.

So what's the deal on this clamshell with triangles?

• 
  
  Is it a pattern published in a source obscure enough we pattern collectors haven't yet come across it?
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  Or is it a regional  pattern passed from hand to hand and never published?

I'd bet it's Southern. Quilt historians working with regional Southern patterns like Rocky Mountain, Whig's Defeat and Pine Burr have noted the prevalence of arcs and strips pieced of spiky triangles and diamonds in post-Civil-War Southern quilts.

Whig's Defeat, about 1880-1920.

There have to be more clamshell quilts out there.

Mystery Pattern: Swirl

For years the owner of this quilt and I have puzzled over the pattern.

She's drawn it up. She is going to make it, she says.

I am not.

But it does stick in my memory because it is so odd (and so difficult to draft---much less sew.)

I was looking at the pictures of cheddar quilts that Kathy Sullivan has collected and came across a cousin.

It's similar in its kind of yin-yang design but this doesn't repeat in the same complex way. (See below for the true Yin-Yang symbol.)

Neither are in my BlockBase computer program or Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.

This is the closest I can find---but it's a distant cousin. Carrie Hall called it Spinning Ball.

The date on the red and white quilt is probably 1930-1950. That curvy ice-cream cone border makes me think it's after 1930 and so much Turkey red would not be likely after 1950.
The chrome orange block quilt is probably early 20th century, or possibly late 19th when so many Southerners made graphic designs with solid-colored cottons.

Thanks to Barbara and Kathy for the pictures.