Flower Basket quilt block

Flower Basket

May 14, 1933-Flowers of All Colors Overflow Graceful Basket in Quilt Block was the title of Nancy Cabot's column this day presenting the Flower Basket quilt.  She felt this new pattern helped to "fill the constant and growing demand for floral quilt patterns."


She suggested using a checked material for the basket, a darker material for the handle, green for the leaves and "the posies themselves may be made in any and all colors."

A copy of the original pattern can be seen here.

The pattern calls for 20 pieced blocks, 20 plain blocks, 14 plain 1/2 blocks, 4 plain 1/4 blocks and a 6" border.  The blocks are 16" and are set on point.  Here's what it might look like-

This is another applique pattern I decided to make to see how Nancy Cabot's pattern worked out.  It didn't. Even though I reduced the scale of the pattern to 6",  the pieces just wouldn't fit right.

I decided to just trace the block from the newspaper to make a pattern and that worked much better. I used fusible applique to make it go faster.  There is a copy of my drawing of Nancy's Flower Basket  block scaled to 6" for download here if you want to make your own pattern.  I used single fold bias tape folded in half to make the handle and the band at the middle of the basket.

Tomorrow-Swing in the Center

Necktie quilt block

Necktie or Bow Tie

May 13, 1933-The Necktie quilt pattern is one of the oldest in existence.  "Both the inspiration and the material for "Necktie" were furnished by father's tie" wrote Nancy Cabot in her Chicago Tribune column.

She suggested you could cut "your pieces from materials of soft pastel tints so much in vogue now" if your "father watches his ties too closely and you cannot collect enough for a quilt."

I chose to use this feedsack print that I have in my fabric stash.  The little design looks like bow ties to me!









Today we would be more likely to know this block

as a Bow Tie block.

 We would also more commonly see it made without the contrasting center square like the quilt shown at the right from the Moda Bakeshop and a Girl in Paradise.  

There's a great tutorial there that shows how the block would have been sewn in Nancy's day.

There are several different ways to make a Necktie or Bow tie quilt.  In 1933, it was most likely pieced by hand using the set in method shown in the tutorial mentioned above.  I used this method for my 6" block from templates that you can get here.


These quilts were made by using the more modern method of stitch and flip.  You can find the tutorial here.

And yet a different method was used in making these Bow Tie blocks. You can learn this method from this tutorial or this video.  The video makes it a little easier to understand I think.




And here's a new twist on this old block from Red Pepper Quilts-



There's a very interesting two color Bowtie quilt at The Quilt Index from the late 1800's and a very scrappy version also.

The Necktie block can be found in Electric Quilt's Blockbase program as Necktie!

Tomorrow-Flower Basket

Peary's Expedition quilt block

Peary's Expedition

May 12, 1933-The Peary's Expedition block commemorates Admiral Peary discovering the North Pole in 1909.  "The four point star, representing the points of the compass, is set on a field of blue, which is the sky" explained Nancy Cabot in her Chicago Tribune column eighty years ago.

This is another of those blocks that I can find no information on.  Maybe it has another name?

It can however be found in Electric Quilt's BlockBase  program as #3901 and is attributed only to Nancy Cabot.  BlockBase shows it with the center being appliqued and the corners being pieced. You can get a copy of a 6" version here if you want to make the block.

Tomorrow-Necktie

Reel quilt block

Reel or Order No. 11

May 11, 1933-The Reel quilt block originated in Kinderhook, New York and was named for "the reel on which yarn was wound for the old spinning wheel" wrote Nancy Cabot.

It was also known as Order No. 11 which has an interesting story behind it. Nancy tells the story like this, "During the Civil War when orders were given to evacuate a town near Chattanooga, directly in the path of an advancing Union army, a southern housewife hastily snatched this unfinished quilt from the frame and buried it in the family silver and other heirlooms.  Many years later, when the treasure was unearthed, the name of the quilt pattern could not be established for a time, and it was rechristened "Order No. 11," the military order for evacuation"





There is a copy of Nancy's original pattern here.  You can download a copy of the pattern scaled down to a 6" block here. The block is an applique block which I made even though I haven't been making the applique blocks lately.  I just fused the pieces in place to see how they fit.  I don't know exactly how they are supposed to fit because the pattern gives you the pieces but not any instruction on how to put the pieces together.  There's some room for interpretation!

The original pattern says to use yellow fabric with either peach or brown fabric and a white background. The quilt is to be made of fifty six 12" blocks-all pieced.

There's an antique quilt shown here and another here.

Tomorrow-Peary's Expedition