Hoo Doo, Humility and Deliberate Mistakes

I've been saving pictures from online quilt sales in which the dealer advertises a HOO-DOO block or a HUMILITY BLOCK in the patterning. The quilt top above has an error in the top left hand block. A triangle is switched.

Here's one advertised as having hoo-doo block. I believe she is referring to a break in the patterning. Notice the blank peach-colored blocks at top left and in the second space up on the bottom right.

In this quilt from about 1900 the break in the patterning is a completely different design in the lower left hand corner.

I bring this up because I have carpenters working on my porch. One installed two of the three hinges on the screen door going one way and the third upside down. I pointed out this error to another carpenter. He shrugged and said, "It's a deliberate error for good luck."

Translation: "I don't want to fix it."

It's hard to see the error in this quilt from about 1900 so I put a red star on it in the lower row.

The phrase humility block alludes to the idea that in some religions it is considered too proud to attempt perfection, therefore one makes a deliberate error to prove to the deity that one is not perfect. (Exactly what religions is vague.)

But we can trace the idea all the way back to Arachne, an uppity human in Greco-Roman mythology, who was too proud of her weaving skills. She challenged the Goddess of Craft to a weaving duel, a bad choice on her part. Her weaving was perfection and the jealous Goddess turned her into a spider.

Those of us who make quilts know errors are all too easy to make. 

 

Jean made this quilt for a pattern sample. None of us noticed the error (not the pattern drafter, the seamstress, the quilter or the editor) until we had it on the wall for photography.

The error is in the lower right area along the edge. She flipped a strip of triangles.

The errors tend to be accidental. The stories about hoo-doo and humility blocks tend to be hype designed to sell quilts.

Log Cabin, about 1900.

Remember that symmetry was not so important to people making quilts to use on a bed.

Don't fall into the trap of using your standards for perfection to interpret quilts from the past.