Raffle/Opportunity Quilts 2022

 

Escher from the Springfield Guild, designed by

Christopher Weinhold

I figure you can get a handle on what is currently fashionable

by looking at the guild raffle quilts. Here are a few to be won in 2022.

Unicorn from Maryland's Southern Comforters

From Kim McLean's pattern

Spring Awakening from a Sue Garman pattern by California's Pioneer Quilt Guild

Oregon's Mary's River Guild

Illinois's Heritage Quilters Guild

Designed by Julie Hale for the Carousel Quilters

Blooming Jewels designed by Jennifer Surra McDowell

for the Bloomington Guild in Illinois

At the Beach by Cara Lamb for California's Pajaro Valley Guild

FiestaSanta Rosa Guild from Nancy Rinks's A New Age pattern

Fort Worth Modern Guild

Colorado's Black Canyon Guild

Prairie Sonnet by the SewWhatevers for the Kaw Valley Quilt Guild,

Lawrence, Kansas.

Ours is of course the best. I didn't do a thing but watched in awe as the designers,

drafters, colorists, piecers and appliquers in the SewWhatevers created this.

A Curious Coincidence in Out of Scale Borders

 

Looking for a clever set for next year's applique BOM at

my Civil War Quilts blog page I came across this quilt that 

looks to be 1840-1880, pictured in the 1981 Quilt Engagement Calendar.

The border vases and vine dominate, breaking big the rule that

borders are the supporting actors.

It definitely has possibilities as a Block of the Month set. I posted a similar quilt on my Facebook page and Kay Triplett noted that their Quilt & Textile Collections hold an almost identical quilt.

Same vase on a platform---a rather quirky addition.

Inscribed "1864 for Emma from Mother"

And here's a third from the ebay seller GB-Best in Pennsylvania.

You can tell the quilts apart by subtle differences in florals and spacing between images. Kay recalled a similar quilt in Mary Koval's inventory but we couldn't find a photo.

There are not many quilts in the giant border files. One more related:

The Art Institute of Chicago owns this one attributed to Sarah J. Harden,

which they date as 1857. No more information.

The giant vases are set in similar fashion.

Here's a guess as to setting. You would want to work on that

center block and get it where it should be. (A little larger wouldn't hurt, either.)

These do seem to have some connection to this extremely popular border design.

74" x 68"

Quilt documented by the New York project in Ithaca.

This common border tends to be a strong visual but not enormous in proportion.

https://quiltindex.org//view/?type=fullrec&kid=49-142-2157

The vase also standing on a rectangle here.

Another version. The platform is not common.

Xenia Cord published a paper on this last border. See Xenia E. Cord, "Vessel, Vine, and Floral Quilt Borders." Uncoverings 2018

Kay's comparison of motifs

Whence such similar quilts with dominant borders? Kay's has no inscription but the GB Best quilt says, "For Emma from Mother. "Seems like if a mother was doing these for all her children, they would have all been labeled similarly," writes Kay. She has a point. I lately try to get away from the idea of identical quilts being made for family members and consider the professional quiltmaker. Was it a woman creating similar quilts for her children or a business woman making a popular design for her customers?

UPDATE

Xenia Cord sends another example with block variations:

"The Peacock, between page 132 and 133, in Florence Peto, Historic Quilts (New York: The American Historical Company, Inc., 1939.)   The text for the image, on page 122, says the quilt is inked Thomas W. Nable of Claysville, Pa., owned by Mrs. Paul Sturdevant. Peto likens the design to peacock-like 'implications' and is probably responsible for the name of the design. Note that this one has 4 flowers on each of the smaller floating motifs. Too bad the image is in black and white."

Working on the photo I noticed a single peacock perched in a flowering tree. I also saw the quilt is inked "October 26, 1858.”

Thank you, Xenia!

I'm not going to use the set for my 2022 applique sampler. But it may inspire you. 

The 2022 BOM at CivilWarQuilts begins in March. Freedom's Friends tells the story of the  Underground Railroad in Philadelphia as told through William Still's records.

https://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/

Article in Blanket Statements

 

I don't often get anything written---footnotes, editing, etc.

Editing?

Why I blog---no references, self-editing.

But I did write a short article published in the current American Quilt Study Group's Blanket Statements newsletter.

Got a publication quality illustration of a southern

quilt from Julie Silber Quilts.

"Regional Style: Southern Spin" is the COVER story in the latest issue #152 (Have we been doing this for 152 issues???) 

I wanted to summarize all the great discussion over at our QuiltHistorySouth Facebook group over the past two years.

Ask to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2427588900863781

I would hope you readers are all members of the American Quilt Study Group, which publishes research in various ways like the newsletter, the annual journal Uncoverings and at the annual seminar (next September in San Diego.)

Join here:     https://americanquiltstudygroup.org/content.aspx?page_id=60&club_id=267008&module_id=494437

My article features a checklist we developed to identify Upland Southern quilt style after about 1880. The more checks the more likely to be a Southern quilt made between 1880 & 1930.

Page 2

Hope you can read it in these JPGs.

Page 3 with the footnotes (endnotes---see, I told you, editing.)

Actually, editor Hallie Bond was quite helpful and I would recommend that any of you with a small research project consider submitting a summary to her.

Rattlesnake Quilt

                              

Ileana Villazon who has an eBay quilt shop recently showed

this Southern rattlesnake quilt top to us over at the 

QuiltHistorySouth Facebook group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2427588900863781

We were looking at these 3-color solid quilts so popular in the South between about

1880 and 1930. This top looks 20th century.

Her top is missing a block. Did the maker share it

 with someone else as a pattern block?

So we got started in a discussion about the pattern and its name.

Two Southerners, Marcia Kaylakie of Texas and Teddy Pruett of Florida had heard names.

Rattlesnake, Willie Yaeger, Abut 1920, Paris, Texas

Collection of Marcia Kaylakie

Marcia calls it Rattlesnake in her chapter on the pattern in Southern Quilts. She has also heard the name Spanish Spur (which might make some of you rattlesnake-aversive quilt fans happier.)

Polly Mello's collection

Teddy says it's Coiled Rattlesnake (pronounced Kwiled) also

seen in John Rice Irwin' book A People & Their Quilts

Block from an online auction

We have no published names before the 1970s as it is the perfect example of a vernacular pattern, passed around hand to hand. Perhaps editors thought the name might not sell many magazines.

Phoebe Irvine Halbert, Texas in the book Texas Quilts: Texas Treasures

Matt Macomber collection

Most of these look to be made in the early 20th century.

And many are pieced of solid fabrics

Unknown maker from the book Arkansas Quilts

Although Polly Mello has this piece cut from one made

in the classic 1890-1920 claret red, cadet blue and black print color scheme.

As is this one from an online auction.

Cindy Rennels found this interesting variation.

Another from an online auction.

Because it was unpublished it doesn't have a BlockBase

or Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns number.

You could write it in your Encyclopedia in two places. As #3370.5, 

a set for fan blocks.

And as a block related to Drunkard's Paths, #1466.5,

both with the name Rattlesnake.

1933 quilt exhibit in Maryville, Missouri

Rattlesnake is also used with other curvy patterns so

they might not be referring to this one.

1934 Decatur, Alabama

The pattern is related to others based on curved piecing like this

Drunkard's Path with fans...

Pictured on the cover of Ladies' Circle Patchwork Quilts, Fall, 1985

Louisiana issue.

And Mohawk Trail, which is the same 16 fan units arranged differently.

If you want to make one use the pattern below for a 16" block or find a pattern for a Mohawk Trail or Baby Bunting quilt and just rearrange the units. BlockBase #3370 will print the fan units any size.

Print this out on an 8-1/2" x 11" sheet.

See posts about snake patterns at these links:
http://encyclopediaquiltpatterns.blogspot.com/2018/10/gypsy-trail-or-snake-in-hollow.html
https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2011/04/snakes.html