Piece or Patch | Quilt Names | Simple and Complex Quilts

"You may be a confirmed "quilt fan" and have a chest full of beautiful coverlets and yet be eager for one more handsome pattern; or you may be just on the verge of attempting your first quilt. At any rate, you surely cannot be indifferent to the charms of patchwork — that simply isn't being done! This wholesome revival of quilt making which is so thoroughly sweeping the country is far more than a fad. One would hardly call Monticello or Mount Vernon "Vogueish." They are the very soul of American art and dignity, and are being more appreciated as such every day. A wing chair, tilt-top table, a four poster, or a highboy may be real Early American or a faithful reproduction. They are the sort of furnishings best loved by the home makers of our land today who appreciate the rich background of beauty and tradition bequeathed to us by Colonial forefathers. The American wing of the Metropolitan Museum is not a fad, and neither, we vouch, is quilt making.

So if you are making a quilt, and it is taking many hours of your time, do not consider them as spent in some fancy work craze such as sealing-wax jewelry one year and painted plaster casts another. You are making a thing of beauty, let us hope—something useful, beautiful and enduring.

Quilts with straight seams such as may be run on the sewing machine are always easiest to make, and by the way, No. 80 thread, machine stitched, gives about as soft a seam as No. 50 hand done. That's a trick worth knowing for the busy woman. Nearly all of the quilts shown do work out in straight seam work. Even such elaborate designs as the Log Cabin, Palm, Zig-Zag or Lone Star sew straight this way.

Others, such as Noonday Lily, Rolling Star, Fish Block, or Sunbeam, have to have a piece fitted in, but this is not so difficult for anyone who sews, and some of the designs are well worth the extra bother.

Some applique quilts are included throughout the book for those who prefer this form of handwork and the lovely effect it gives. Almost always the "Bride's Quilt" was an applique and there are many gorgeous ones in antique collections, bearing testimony of countless hours in their planning, placing and stitchery. We can not show many such in a book of this sort as applique designs are usually so large. For instance, the rose and bud motif of our "Rose Cross" might be used in a Rose of Sharon.

No design has more versions than this same romantic Rose of Sharon—all are the built up rose flower with leaves, buds and stems, but arrangements vary in varying localities, and almost all are lovely. We have patterns on two, a simple and a more elaborate later Rose in special patterns. This was by long odds the most popular "Bride's Quilt" pattern, its significant title coming down from the love songs of Solomon. "I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the Valleys. As the flower among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away! For the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come!" Sounds like a June wedding with roses, valley lilies—or do you think it suggests elopement? To some Colonial girl with imagination it meant a quilt!

But I'm rambling with romance. Getting back to technicalities and patterns there was a difference between the "piece" quilts and "patch" quilts. And, contrary to what you might expect, the patch variety was the aristocrat and the pieced the poor relation. For "patch," sometimes called "sewed on" or "laid work," meant the appliques and required new cloth bought especially, while piecing used every vestige of left-over material, whole parts from worn garments, bits of finery or blanket or traded scraps from friends—anything to piece together to make warm covers for the beds.

But "piece" quilts have come up in the world. Such lovely patterns have been evolved from squares, triangles, diamonds, and strips that now women buy handsome materials as some practical husband remarked, "just to cut all up and sew back together!" However, a finished quilt is worth all the price of material and work expended, as well as unsympathetic comment endured. This last is rare; usually we are due for admiration if not envy, from the time the first well-planned block is made until the fine old quilt wears out in service, a generation or two later.

Selecting a design is quite an individual problem and naturally we can not tell you which one you would enjoy most. However, we can tell you which ones are most popular—do you want the one everybody is making or an individual one? There are over a hundred patterns here in your little book, each with possibilities of loveliness. Double Wedding Ring is being
made by thousands, usually from the widest possible selection of print scraps. It is unquestionably popular, and yet the owner of an art needlework shop told me recently that in her opinion it was an ugly, erratic design! She had not seen it in our rainbow tint plan which (opinion again!) is really more lovely than when made of all unrelated prints. "Dresden Plate" or "Friendship Ring," the hexagon plan quilts like "Grandmother's Flower Garden" or the "French Bouquet" are favorites and not so because they are easy to make, either. Flower and basket quilts are popular; so are the tree designs and stars—there are some very beautiful
star patterns, with the Lone Star best beloved of all.

Irish chains are charming for the amount of work. They come under the class of cut pieces all straight with the weave of the material; no triangles or diamonds to an Irish Chain, but exactly even squares placed as shown with our pattern of Triple Irish Chain or of Double Irish Cross. An ordinary nine-patch set together with alternate plain squares is sometimes called Single Irish Chain, while 9 each way in one block with 3 appliqued onto alternate square corners is called "Forty Niner" and not Quadruple Irish!

Names often have much to do with a quilt's popularity. They do more than identify a certain combination of pieces—a catchy name like Crazy Ann, Dove in the Window, or Wild Goose Chase whets the imagination. We get many letters from people saying, "I have an old family quilt, pieced like the sketch with red, etc., etc., please, what is its name?" And if we can trace back its family branches, the grateful owner feels like the treasure of her ancestors has been made legitimate.

Names of the same pattern do vary. Period, locality and general human contrariness have caused many a fog over quilt escutcheons. An editor of the Chicago Daily News wrote: "Tell me, is it possible that there be various 'Roads to California' with one of them looking like ‘Jacob's Ladder' or possibly 'Stepping Stones'?" Yes, and "Drunkard's Path" was sometimes "Wonder of the World," and that long before prohibition, too!

Some quilt names are of pioneer ancestry with a breath of dare and danger like "Bear's Paw," "Crossed Canoes," "Indian Trail," "Prairie Queen." Others have a staid and homey background—"Rail Fence," "Mill Wheel," "Meadow Lily," "Sun Dial," while yet another group bespeaks the tang of the sea—"Square and Compass," "Ship's Wheel," "Ocean Wave," "Storm at Sea," "Rolling Star"—these all come from coastwise ancestry. And by the way, the very Ship's Wheel of Cape Cod is called Harvest Sun in Pennsylvania.

The easiest quilts to make are perhaps four-patches upon which so many little girls have learned to sew, and "brick work," that boon plan of piecing for the woman who has a lot of "sample" oblongs all shaped alike. Brick work is simply sewing into shallow rows a strip of equal size oblongs, then jogging the seam half way over for the next row, etc. Four patches are 2 dark and 2 light squares joined checkerboard fashion, and two of these alternated with plain square of equal size to make a large block.

A nine-patch demands that you get four intersections to meet exactly instead of just one as in the four patch. A double nine patch made of tiny squares cut about 1 1-4 inches square makes one of the daintiest quilts imaginable when flowerlike colors are used in profusion with white for the alternate squares. Using all four corners of little pieced ninepatches as well as the center makes it even lovlier.

Quilts like Swastika, Orange Peel, Old Maid's Puzzle, and Windmill are elaborated four patches; while it is easy to trace the nine patch variation in many like Weathervane, Pin Wheels, Maple Leaf, Greek Cross, Jacob's Ladder, etc.

Beggar's Block, Burgoyne's Quilt, and the triangle corners of the Skyrocket are sort of three patch placings. Then come a great group based on the diamond unit, the six and eight pointed stars, the piecing plus applique designs like Honey Bee, Noon Day Lily, Cherry Basket, and Friendship Ring. There are those that take curved seams, Mill Wheel, Rob Peter to Pay Paul, and the French Star and those that demand shallow angle seams like Baby's Blocks and French Bouquet. Double Wedding Ring and Lone Star have the whole quilt top as a unit, although they, too, must work from small pieces to larger.

If you are an applique enthusiast, we have included a few straight "laid on" patterns.

We do hope you will find the very one that appeals to you, and after that another and another as every one has possibilities of real beauty.   It's up to you—Choose a pattern!

BEGGAR BLOCK

This  interesting   block  harks   back to the neighborly custom of begging  one's   friends   for  scraps   of their frocks, or for the men's old neckties to put into a quilt.

In piecing, first sew the small triangles onto those marked red, to form an oblong exactly the same size as the one marked yellow. Two of these oblongs and one yellow are pieced together as shown to form the small square block.

It takes eight of such pieced squares and' one plain center to form a beggar's block eleven inches square.

While these are marked in colors for a calico quilt, this is an excellent design to piece with bright colored scraps of silks and wools, set together with black, navy or some dull color in the places marked white. The patterns are the size of the pieces after they have been sewed together, so cut each a seam larger on all sides.

Material Estimate: There   are   36 pieced blocks in this quilt set together with white strips 11 by 33/4 inches, plus seams. Fill in at the ends of the strips with squares of yellow, add strips top and bottom for length. Your quilt will then complete about 84x91 inches. This will require 11/2 yards of yellow, 1 yard red and 61/2 yards of white—a total of 9 yards of material.

A narrow Cable or Shell would be right for quilting the strips.

SUNBURST

A Sunburst quilt means consider able work to the block, but very few blocks to the quilt. Even as few as four, properly spaced, will make a stunning coverlet, or as many as nine can be used. Half blocks, too, are effective as they look like great rising or setting suns to the edge.

Any gradation of 4 colors which harmonizes with one's room can be used—the yellow and peach tints, greens with blue or yellow or the French—pink-orchid-blue plan as suggested.

The diagram for allowing seams to a sharp angle is helpful as this is a design of acute angles and must be trimmed down accordingly to avoid unwieldy points on the rays.

To place the Sunburst rays on the large background block—22 inches to 36 inches even—crease it in halves and fourths both ways and place the points on creased lines for accuracy.

Material Estimate: By using four 30 inch white squares plus a 9-inch border all around, your quilt will finish about 78 by 78 inches. The border is divided as follows: A 3-inch strip of peach next to quilt center, a 2-inch strip of orchid and then a 4-inch strip of light blue on the outside. This will require 21/2 yards of peach, 1-3 yard pink, 1 2-3 yards orchid, 2 yards of light blue and 31/2 yards white—a total of 10 yards.

GRANDMOTHER’S CROSS

It looks like grandmother's idea to to begin with had been a nine-patch with   the   border   inspiration   later. This really makes a charming block, 12 inches square completed and is a splendid solution for scraps, "dark, light and medium," for   odd   woolen   pieces   to make a heavy "tacked comforter" type of quilt.

Patterns are made of cardboard or blotting paper exactly like the units here given. Mark around these onto material and then cut a seam larger to make the finished block 12 inches square.

The way a quilt sets together may change its whole appearance, for the colors used in the strips and squares bring out those same colors in the quilt block. This quilt would be very nice set together with lavender strips 12 by 21/2 inches allowing for seams extra with 21/2-inch purple squares filled in at the end of the strips to come at all block intersections.

Material Estimate: Your quilt will have 30 pieced blocks, set together with 44 lavender strips 21/2 by 12 inches and 20 purple 21/2-inch blocks. There is a 21/2-inch   lavender   border   all   around. This will require 31/2 yards gray print, 1 yard white, 2 yards purple and 21/2 yards lavender. This 9 yards includes strips for setting together.

KING'S CROWN

Not really to bedeck the brow of some real king, but to make a quaint   old-fashioned   coverlet the purpose of the King's Crown quilt block.

Very simple to piece are these two dissimilar triangles, which, when placed together, make an interesting design square. Grouped for a quilt top they form a more intricate pattern if the position of every other one is reversed, than when set together in the usual checkerboard plan with alternate plain white squares. Size of the King's Crown block is ten inches if seams are allowed in addition to the cutting patterns.

Set together diagonally, with alternate plain white squares, five blocks wide, six blocks long and with a three-inch border all around, this quilt will finish about 76x90 inches. There are 30 pieced blocks, 20 plain blocks, 18 plain half blocks, cut diagonally, and 4 plain fourth blocks for the corners.

Material Estimate: It requires ½ yard red, 13/4 yards gold, and 61/2 yards of white to make up this quilt top, or a total of 834 yards. A Horn of Plenty or Feather Circle would be interesting on the plain blocks.

WINDMILL AND OUTLINE

Of course this is only the windmill part of the sketched quilt, but so many people have sets of embroidered quilt blocks that we thought this a clever and welcome suggestion for putting them together. Usually just plain blocks are used for this purpose, depending on quilting to add the interest necessary. This windmill is particularly adapted to use in a juvenile quilt as it effects a quaint pattern much like those pin wheel windmills which children love.

A strip is sewed onto a triangle as shown at the bottom of pattern, then 4
triangles make the block, all straight sewing in spite of the staggered effect
when finished.

Material Estimate: This pattern does not allow for seams, so they should be added to the sizes given. The block finishes 91/2 inches square or I21/2
inches on the diagonal. Your quilt requires 42 plain unbleached quilted blocks set together diagonally with 30 whole pieced blocks, 22 half blocks and 4 quarter blocks. If made 6 blocks wide by 7 blocks long, it will finish
about 75 by 87 inches. This will require 21/2 yards of blue and 5 yards of
unbleached, a total of 71/2 yards of material.

ROSE CROSS

Applique is one of the most popular branches of the quilt making art and it is for lovers of applique that the "Rose Cross" is offered. Unlike piecing, applique offers diversifications and embellishments. The patterns may be made just as elaborate as the maker chooses and her originality has more chance to assert itself.

This pattern shows a decorative combination of a cross motif and a foundation rose pattern. The colors are optional but there is no prettier combination than the ones suggested here in yellow, rose and pink with the leaves developed in green.

The Rose Cross may be appliquéd onto a white 12-inch square and the group of them set together lattice fashion with green strips that are 3 inches wide and 12 inches long when finished, filling in at the end or the strips with a 3-inch rose square. You can also make a 3-inch border all around of the same color, or build an applique one similar to the corner sketch using bias tape for the stem.

Material Estimate: To make the quilt five blocks wide and six blocks long takes 30 blocks. These with the strips make a quilt about 78x96 inches, and will require 41/2 yards white, 21/2 yards rose, 1 yard pink, 3 of green, and 1-6 yard yellow.

A narrow Cable would be suitable for quilting a 3-inch strip. You can repeat this as many times as is needed for your quilt.

NECKTIE

Here is the Necktie block for which we have had numerous requests and several patterns supplied. And this block is about as simple to make as a bowknot is to tie.

The idea is to use various scraps of material for the "bows" with a unifying background carrying through in the other two sections of each block. A silk or wool necktie quilt is quite attractive made with dark background or wash goods with white or some continuing tint as yellow print calico, or rose or lavender percale.

Material Estimate: By using 90 pieced blocks set together so the bows all go in the same direction, 9 blocks wide by 10 blocks long, your quilt will finish about 80 by 89 inches. This will require 4 yards of white and 5 yards of color or a total of 9 yards of material. A border may be made by using the small triangles that cut off the corner of the larger block.

TRIPLE IRISH CHAIN

Every enthusiastic quilter has in her collection some sort of Irish Chain.    And surely there is a reason, as these do make up into the most effective of old-fashioned counterpanes. There are single, double and even triple varieties—the  quilt  sketched   being the last named.

Any three colors could be used: Wouldn't flame orange and black be modern and gorgeous on apricot tint in sateens? Thirteen pieced blocks A with 12 plain squares about 13 inches square will be enough for a quilt when set together as shown with pieced blocks B and D. C is the pieced ends added to the large oblong pattern to make D. Borders may be added to achieve any desired size.

Cut a seam larger than the patterns here given, as the finished blocks should be at least these sizes.

Material Estimate: Supposing we make the quilt white, with the dark chains red and outer row light green. Allow about 6 yards of white, 2 of red and 11/2 of green for a full size quilt top.

A 12-inch Feather Circle can be used on the large open spaces—or the Dove of Peace, or any other design, which fits into a square diagonally placed.

BURGOYNE'S QUILT

Although General Burgoyne was a British soldier and not under the American colors at all, the quilt which some way is associated with his name would be really effective in red, navy and white.

A Burgoyne block is composed of a number of smaller units, four patches, nine patches, plains and an odd oblong six patch. Put together according to
the plan shown they form a beautiful pattern 15 inches square if seams are added to the cutting units given. Twenty blocks set together with light strips 5 inches wide with a pieced block of medium and light at the corners and bordered with the same makes a quilt top about 85 by 105 which makes a quilt long enough to fold over the pillows to form a spread.

Material Estimate: This quilt takes 20 pieced blocks set together with 49 strips 5 by 15 inches and 30 small pieced 5-inch squares. It will require 1 yard of dark material, 21/4 yards medium and 5 yards of light, a total of 81/4 yards, which includes material for setting together.

WINGED SQUARE

This interesting pattern is one of the many charming variations of the old nine patch original. Only three of the nine patches are plain squares though, the other six each being pieced or 4 light and 4 dark triangles.

The 12-inch pieced blocks may be set together with alternate plain white squares so that the pieced ones "wing" all one direction, or another plan is suggested in the small sketch which uses 20 pieced and 16 plain giving a rather more unusual effect.

Often the setting together of blocks may be so planned by balancing colors
or arranging unusually that much distinction is  achieved from humble material.

Winged square blocks are 12 inches square if seams are added to the patterns here given.

Material Estimate: Set together as suggested in the small sketch you will need 20 pieced blocks and \6 plain blocks. Your quilt will finish about 72 by 72 inches without borders. This will require 5 yards of white, 11/2 yards of pink and ½ yards rose print, a total of 7 yards without borders.

A Butterfly or Snowflakes design would be a good quilting choice for the plain blocks.

ROAD TO CALIFORNIA

The Road to California smacks of the gold rush and first railroads dating back to the forty-niners at-least. It is an easy quilt to piece and quite effective, too, in old gold print with unbleached muslin. This is also a very good pattern in which to use odd scraps of material, setting them together with alternate plain squares so the dark band with triangle follows diagonally across the quilt one way, and the small dark squares do the same thing in the opposite direction. Surely the Road to California must have had many by-ways leading therefrom!

Each block is 12 inches square, really a nine-patch made of five small blocks A with four B. Cutting patterns are made of cardboard from the ones here given. These do not allow for seams if making a 12-inch block.

Material Estimate: If you make your quilt six blocks wide by seven blocks
long it will finish 72x84 inches. By setting together with alternate white blocks you will have 21 pieced blocks and 21 plain. It will require 21/2 yards of print and 6 yards of white material.

Snowflakes or a Horn of Plenty would make attractive quilting patterns for the plain blocks.

WHIRLWIND

Whirlwind and "pin" wheel" often mean the same thing in quilt vernacular, although we'll admit there is considerable difference in real life!

This is a very simple design with small triangles sewing into a larger one which joins with a large print triangle to form a square—one fourth of the finished block. If scrap material is being used, make each block of one print with white or a plaint tint. Keep the prints all about the same light or dark value; variety in hues is charming but some light with some dark blocks makes an ugly quilt.

Cardboard patterns are made matching the triangles here given, and these are used to mark around onto cloth. Then cut a bit larger as these do not allow for seams. The finished blocks are about 8 inches square, and may be set together with strips or plain blocks as desired. However, with plain blocks set diagonally on the quilt, which finishes with half squares of course, is really the approved plan for whirlwind.

Material Estimate: If you set your pieced blocks together with plain white
blocks on the diagonal using 7 blocks across and 8 blocks long, your quilt
will finish about 78 by 90 inches. It will take 56 pieced blocks, 42 plain whole blocks, 26 plain half blocks (cuton diagonal), and four plain quarter
blocks for the corners. This will require 13/4 yards print and 7 yards of white, a total of 83/4 yards. The Cherry Basket perforated pattern No. 327 at 25c would fit the plain blocks for quilting.

VIRGINIA STAR

This  is  a really wonderful  block, even without the corner appliqués or decorative "set" as quilt makers used to call the blocks or strips with which pieced blocks are put together.

The Virginia Star is pieced first by making a large diamond of nine small diamonds, sewed together with edges placed as in sketch B. One of each size background triangle is then added as shown to make a right angle triangle which is half of the square which forms a quarter of the entire block. This is shown by the extended dotted lines of the block. Appliques which are cut from the same unit diamond without adding seams may be added as sketched. Seams should be added to all other parts and the block will then finish 16 inches square. Lattice strips should finish 11/2 inches wide or the strip of three 41/2 inches. This makes the small corner stars right to cut from the same unit diamond pattern.

If you set your blocks together diagonally with 41/2-inch strips you will have a quilt 3 blocks long and 3 wide finishing about 84 by 84 inches. This will take 13 whole pieced blocks, 8 half blocks and 36 strips each 16 inches long.

Material Estimate: Background white 5 yards, medium 2 yards, (applique material not included) dark 3 yards, and light 11/4 yards, a total of 111/4 yards for the complete quilt.

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