A Little Red, White and Blue

I am always pleased when quilty friends share antique and vintage quilts they have.  This one I saw last week at our Batty Binder's Quilt Guild's stitching night.  Joyce brought in this quilt she was working on.  The top was from her husband's aunt in about 1915 - 1920.  The ages of these solid quilts are hard to really nail down.  Joyce is hand quilting it in order to finish it.

The pattern is one I recognized as "Crosses and Losses" , but like most patterns, it is known by many names.  Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns (also available as an Ebook by the original publisher, American Quilter's Society here)  and it's accompanying computer program called "Block Base" sold by Electric Quilt is my "go to" quilt references for block names.  Brackman compiled this book from studying early quilt publications, magazines, newspapers, etc. copying down the blocks, making notes and dividing them up into groupings to I.D. them.   This block is 1316a and she gives the names "Double X #2" from Ladies Art Company, "Fox and Geese" or "Crosses and Losses" in Ruth Finley's Patchwork Quilts and the Women who Made Them, "Bow Tie Variation" Robert A. Bishop and Elizabeth Safanda's A Gallery of Amish Quilts and "Goose and Goslings" in Capper's Weekly. 

I love looking through all these old patterns....but not quite as much as seeing them in person, especially when they are owned and loved and being completed after all these years.

If you enjoy quilt history, then you probably would enjoy Barbara Brackman's blog.