Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Cathedral Window quilt block

Cathedral Window
April 13, 1933-Kentucky's first cathedral provided the inspiration for the Cathedral Window quilt block pattern according to Nancy Cabot. She wrote "the quiet, softened pastel shades of pink or blue on a background of milky white are a wise choice of materials" for this pattern.

This pattern is very different from what we would think of as a Cathedral Window block today.  I'm guessing that it was not a commonly used pattern since I can't find any info. on it.

I did not try to make this block for my sampler quilt because I didn't think it was suitable for a 6" block.

The Cathedral Window block can be found in BlockBase as #1953.





This block reminds me of cutting out paper snowflakes as a kid.  You know, where you fold the paper and cut out shapes?  Anyway, I think it would be nice made as a big block.  In a 6" block, the large squares are only about 1 3/8"!



Tomorrow-Star and Crescent
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3 comments :

  1. AnonymousDecember 28, 2013 at 12:39 AM

    I found this block in an old quilt book my mother gave me, and I love it! I broke the pattern down to all squares and triangles for ease of cutting and piecing. I am currently in process of making a baby quilt as one big Cathedral Window block. The quilt is not yet complete, and it's already one of my favorites. :-)

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    1. UnknownDecember 28, 2013 at 10:39 AM

      I'd love to see it and I'm sure my readers would too. If you'd like to send me a picture at candace@doublenickelquilts.com, I'd post it if you don't mind.

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  2. Rebecca GraceMarch 22, 2020 at 7:24 AM

    I know this post was from several years ago, but I was so glad to find it this morning! I am making a version of the Moda Modern Quilt Blocks sampler that I resized in EQ8 to fit my son's bed. I swapped out several of the blocks in Moda's original design either because they were boring or because, as I was searching for those blocks in the EQ library, I found others that I liked better. This Cathedral Windows block by Nancy Cabot is in my EQ BlockBase library and it's one of the ones I chose to substitute in my quilt -- before I counted that it has SIXTEEN Y-Seams! Hah! Well, I'm making it anyway, finished size will be 20". I did not simplify construction by subdividing any of the patches to eliminate Y-seams; I'm piecing this on my 1935 Featherweight one seam at a time... Anyway, I'm delighted to find that you've got all of these fabulous 1930s blocks here on your blog. If you'd like to see my version of Cathedral Windows (with seven colors instead of just two), those pics are on my blog here: http://cheekycognoscenti.blogspot.com/2020/03/y-seam-reality-check-and-refresher.html.

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