Tiger Lily quilt block

Tiger Lily

March 6, 1933- Nancy Cabot published the Tiger Lily quilt block in her Chicago Tribune article on this day.  She says it originated in the pioneer days and "was pieced of red, yellow, and green prints on a cream background-unusually colorful in the days of it's origin when dingy browns and lifeless grays were used in such abundance."  She thought that it was due to an effort by pioneer wives to add brightness to their "rough surroundings."

This is definitely an applique block.  The pieces are not tiny even at the 6" size block that I made.  Since the block is on the diagonal, the pieces are more like the size of an 8" block.  I did raw edge applique and fused the pieces in place for the sample for this blog but if I decide to use the block in my sampler quilt, I will stitch along the edges of the pieces.  You can download the templates here.

Tomorrow-Philadelphia Pavement

I'm looking for people to make some of the blocks for the posts.  If you have a blog or website, you can promote it on this blog when posting about the block that you made.  If you are interested, please email me for more info.

Sunburst quilt block

Sunburst 

March 5, 1933-"A block containing so many small pieces in such a complicated arrangement is, of course, difficult for the beginner" wrote Nancy Cabot when describing today's block, the Sunburst block.  I agree completely.  This block almost got the best of me!

Nancy suggested piecing this block "in warm colors shading from the flaming reds to the rich golden rays of the sun" which is appropriate for what it's name suggests.  I, however, do not have any suitable vintage fabrics in those colors so I chose to do mine in shades of blue.

Because of the tiny size of the pieces in a 6" block, I paper pieced my block.  It goes together fairly easy but there are a lot of pieces!  The center is another matter.  I think it needs to be appliqued on, probably by hand.  I was trying to finish it quickly and fused the center on but I'm not real happy with how it turned out.




These are the basic units of the block except the corners which didn't make the photo-

And this is what you get ( at right) when you sew all the paper pieced units shown above together.  This new unit is one-fourth of the block.

You also need to add the corner unit at this point which I totally forgot about and meant tearing the block apart to insert the corners.  Not fun! I had to draw my own corner to get it to fit right as you will see on the pattern.  I made it oversized so that the block can be trimmed to 6 1/2".  Be sure to clip the curve of each corner piece to help ease it in.  The sides of the circle actually come right up to the seam allowance!  I wonder how Nancy Cabot envisioned using this in a quilt.

You can download the pattern here.

Tomorrow-Tiger Lily



Here's a recap of the blocks for the last week-

Swastika	Improved Nine Patch	Arrowheads
Eight Point Star	Tulips	Square and Compass

Square and Compass quilt block

Square and Compass

March 4, 1933-"Blue, White Quilt Carries Traditions of Seagoing Folk" was the title of Nancy Cabot's column today.  She was talking about the  Square and Compass design which "originated in a little fishing village in Maine."  It is also the symbol of the Masonic Fraternity she says.  It can be found in Electric Quilt's BlockBase program as #2366.

Nancy's drawing of this block showed it as a two color block placing the blue where I have it in my block but the white was not only used where I have used it but was used as the background.  That doesn't make sense to me so I changed the background to a print fabric as you can see.  I used the blue and white as she suggested but added the little nautical print  to keep with the theme of the original block.





This block is a little challenging at the six inch size that I made.  It's not impossible but the small curves take some time and patience.  Here is how I put the parts together-

Basic pieces of the block

One-fourth of the block

Half of the block

The block is made of four identical sections.  You can download the templates here.

Tomorrow-Sunburst

Tulips quilt block

Tulips quilt block

March 3, 1933-  The Tulips quilt block was featured in the Chicago Tribune column written by Nancy Cabot.

"Pudgy tulips in a patchwork quilt are especially delightful for little boys and girls of roly-poly years", she wrote.  I would not have thought about using this block for a child's quilt, especially a boy's quilt.  Isn't it interesting to hear the view of someone writing eighty years ago though?

Nancy also tells us that the flowers "will be supported by green sturdy stems which will sprout from a dark flower pot."  She says the flowers can be the same in each block with each block being different or each flower can be different within the block and all the blocks could be the same.






I chose to make all my flowers the same and made the block using fusible applique.  You can find directions for making the templates for this block here. It is six inches finished.  Use whatever applique method you like best.

Tomorrow-Square and Compass