More Unknown Patterns

Leota sent this photo, telling me she couldn't find the pattern in my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.

I couldn't find it in there either.

It looks like a simple fan from the 1930s or 1940s but the ends of the spokes are curved inward rather than curved outward.

Look at the corners where the blocks meet. The curved white shapes make a complex secondary pattern.

And Mary L. sent this one.

Should be on page 469: "8-Pointed Stars with points oriented up and down."

But it's not.

And here's the worst of all. I can't believe I can't find the design below.

Jessica sent this one. I couldn't find it in either my Encyclopedia of Pieced Patterns or Encyclopedia of Applique. It seems so common...but...

BREAKING NEWS:

On Tuesday the 5th, Tim writes to say that the pattern above IS in the Encyclopedia of Pieced Patterns. #3629.

It's drawn with the pointed blades a little short but that is it. Here's the BlockBase sketch. It was published by Hubert VerMerhren's pattern company (sometimes referred to as the Home Art pattern company)under the name Friendship Circle and also in Successful Farming magazine as Dresden Plate. Both were 1930s pattern sources. Thanks to Tim for looking in the right spot.

I am guessing that the top two designs came from the Laura Wheeler/Alice Brooks syndicated pattern column. The clues are the sophisticated geometrics that result in secondary patterning where the blocks meet. These look like the work of professional designers rather than quilters recording the folk art patterns they grew up with. That style is very typical of the Wheeler/Brooks columns in the 1930s. The column was so popular that I know I haven't indexed all their designs.

A few years ago I wrote a book called Women of Design: Quilts in the Newspaper. Here's some of what I wrote about this pattern source:

About 1933, a new quilt pattern feature began to appear in the Kansas City Star. Readers found smaller columns advertising patterns that could be ordered through the mail. A drawing of a patchwork quilt and a paragraph of description were followed by a last line reading “Send 10 cents for the pattern to The Kansas City Star, Needlecraft Dept., Kansas City, Mo.”

The Star forwarded orders to a pattern source in New York City that went by a number of official names. Quilt pattern collectors know little about this company, which was formed as Needlecraft Service in 1932. The name was changed to Reader Mail in 1944. Over the years, they’ve offered patterns for all kinds of needlework including crochet and clothing. Reader Mail is now located in Michigan and continues to offer syndicated advertisements in newspapers around the country. [It may be gone now.]

In some newspapers (their patterns appeared in hundreds of papers in the 1930s) the column ran under the names Laura Wheeler or Alice Brooks, fictional columnists who gave a personal touch to the feature. The Star patterns printed before World War II used no byline, so pattern collectors have learned to recognize the Needlecraft Service designs by their distinctive drawing style, which featured detailed calicoes in blocks drawn side by side to emphasize complex secondary designs.

Many readers were attracted enough by the lovely drawings and the innovative designs to invest their dime in “stamps or coin, coin preferred.” The pattern that arrived a week or so later included a detailed schematic drawing with suggested yardage on a sheet of tissue or newsprint about 15 by 20 inches.

These patterns were neither feature nor advertisement, but something called a “reader service feature.” Newspapers subscribed to the feature, knowing that readers, especially rural readers, enjoyed the opportunity to order fashion and crafts by mail. The paper and the pattern company shared those many dimes.

See more about this newspaper column in an August, 2009 post on this blog by clicking here:
http://siputflash.blogspot.com/2009/08/laura-wheeler-patterns.html

I learned most of what I know about the Wheeler/Brooks syndicate from quilt historian Wilene Smith, who has started a new quilt history webpage called Quilt History Tidbits. Click here to see her page on Laura Wheeler and Alice Brooks.
http://quilthistorytidbits--oldnewlydiscovered.yolasite.com/laura-wheeler-and-alice-brooks.php
And bookmark the site. Fans of quilt history will love her detective work.
http://quilthistorytidbits--oldnewlydiscovered.yolasite.com/

For more information about Women of Design: Quilts in the Newspaper, click here:
https://www.pickledishstore.com/productDetail.php?PID=441

You can buy the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns from the EQ website which sells BlockBase, the digital version. The book version has OVER 4,000 PATTERNS. Just none of the above.
http://www.electricquilt.com/Shop/BlockBase/Encyclopedia.asp

Digital Toys in Arnold's Attic

It's been fun waiting for my Arnold's Attic reproduction collection for Moda to arrive. It's scheduled to be in shops in August. I've been digitally doodling with my Electric Quilt and BlockBase programs and the swatches available on the Moda website.

The colors in the line tend to be earth colors: muted orange, brown and green with a lot of blue.

Here's a traditional Spider Web design that I found in my BlockBase digital library of patterns. The pattern was fairly popular about 1900, the time period we are recreating with the prints.

I found the pattern in BlockBase; transferred it to EQ (Electric Quilt) and recolored it with the new fabrics. 

If you have EQ you should try loading pictures of the individual prints into your color palette like I did. See the link to a tutorial below. What you want to do is save pictures of the prints as jpgs and then create your own fabric library.

An easy way to load pictures is to buy the EQ Stash program. The Spring 2010 edition includes Arnold's Attic.

After doing several mockups using BlockBase's traditional patterns I started thinking about doing a "Modern" quilt. I noticed Karrie Lyne's pattern for a quilt she calls Random Reflections on the Moda Bakeshop website. She's used 2-1/2" Jellyroll strips of Fandango fabrics plus yardage to create this strip quilt.

See her tutorial at the Moda Bake Shop by clicking here:
http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/07/random-reflections.html#more

I drew her 10" blocks (36 of them) in EQ and filled in the strips with prints from Arnold's Attic. I turned it on it's side too.

One important part of Karrie's quilt is the solid contrast. She used plain white in hers.

Arnold's Attic doesn't have any solids.

I didn't whine, however. I realized that I don't need to have solids in every collection of fabric I design....

Because Moda has Bella Solid Basics. Above I used Rust (#9900-105)

I found some basic plains that coordinated with the prints but that were brighter or lighter to provide necessary contrast. This one is Figtree Olive (#9900-69). I love that Figtree palette and this color goes perfectly with the prints.

I tried 2 different shades of blue-green. The light one is Sage (#9900-35); the darker Dusty Jade (#9900-38). Karie designed this quilt to be made of 2-1/2" precut strips, Moda's Jelly Rolls, plus yardage.

If you are a digital doodler I suggest you do your planning by copying the Moda prints and plains into EQ. Click here to find out more about the Stash program that updates your digital drawings with the latest prints.

http://www.electricquilt.com/Shop/Stash/StashWEQ.asp

Here's an online tutorial about loading the jpgs yourself:
http://www.electricquilt.com/Support/FAQ/eq6FAQ/eq6_fabricLIB.asp#web

Here's where to find the swatches to save at the United Notions/Moda website:

For Arnold's Attic

http://www.unitednotions.com/jpg_arnolds-attic.zip

For the Bella Solid Basics

http://www.unitednotions.com/un_main.nsf/mf_basics

And here's where to find information about the Electric Quilt program, the BlockBase pattern library and the Stash fabric library.

http://www.electricquilt.com/

http://www.electricquilt.com/Shop/BlockBase/BlockBase.asp

Buff and Blue Number 2

Julie from Tennessee sent photos of a quilt signed "E. Prouty" that she bought in upstate New York several years ago. She was confused by information in my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns where I indexed the design as "California Rose," indicating it was published about 1898 in the Ladies Art Company's catalog of quilt patterns. The fabrics looked much older than 1898 to her.

Her question is a good one and illustrates the problems with indexing patterns because the names were only published after 1885 or so, 100 years after Americans started making patchwork quilts. Quilts in some designs were made directly from those turn-of-the-last-century patterns and publications, but quilts in other designs were made much earlier than their first published reference.

Julie's quilt is one of those older patterns passed around hand-to-hand before magazines and catalogs began to sell how-to patterns. The fabrics are the blue-and-buff prints in rainbow or fondu (shaded) style that were so fashionable in the 1840s and '50s for clothing and patchwork.

Although it's hard to date quilts from photographs, this high-style color palette was popular in the mid-19th century rather than at the end. She's right in thinking it's older than 1898. As far as a name: My Encyclopedia and BlockBase, its digitized version, show many rather romantic names and variations. Some are pieced and then appliqued to a square, which looks to be the case with Julie's quilt. Others are completely pieced as in the block on the right below.

There is no "correct" name for quilt patterns because names were so often set in print decades after the quilts were made. We have no idea what E. Prouty called her quilt, and Julie can call it what she likes.

The fabrics are a showcase of 1840-60 prints with quite a few rainbow prints and many bright Prussian blue plaids, stripes and eccentric prints. Do note the brown stains next to some of the blue and buff prints. I have seen this kind of brown color echoing blue patches before. It may be a form of dye migration.

If you'd like to read more about Buff and Blue prints see my posting for August 8, 2009 by clicking here:
http://siputflash.blogspot.com/2009/08/buff-and-blue.html

I will be eMailing a subscription newsletter The Quilt Detective: Prints Color & Dyes this winter. You can read the first issue, which has to do with Prussian blues, as a free sample, by clicking here:

http://www.siputflash.com/1%20Prussian%20Blue.pdf

For subscription information click here:

http://www.siputflash.com/Newsletter%20Flier.pdf

If you'd like to make a block in the Victoria's/Caesar's Crown, Strawberry design you can print templates any size in my BlockBase computer program for PCs. The many variations are numbered from 3625 to 3665. For more information on BlockBase from Electric Quilt click here:

http://www.electricquilt.com/Shop/BlockBase/BlockBase.asp