Hourglass Star

There are a few duplicate blocks in this signature album quilt as you can see. 

The picture shows the top two rows of the quilt, one third of the whole top.  The last block in the first row is another basket of diamonds, like the first block.  

This block is signed by Onie Mead, an unusual name.  It is a variation of the name Anne and (believe it or not) was popular in the late 1800s in the USA. Onie was living with her husband and two sons when the quilt was made; her sister Lorena also made one of the blocks.

On to the next block.  I can't find a name for this pattern so I've called it an hourglass star.  It's a 16 patch block with a centre hourglass, four flying geese and for half triangle squares for the corners.  With my ten inch blocks each patch is 2.5 inches.

Mrs. Herr was Gussie Selina Herr.  Gussie worked occasionally in the fruit packing sheds and lived to 103.

Malaga is about 6.5 miles away from Wenatchee

A Basket of Diamonds

Today I received the new issue of Down Under Quilts in the letterbox.

I am very pleased to say that that my 1937 Signature Quilt made is on page 13!  How cool is that!

I posted about purchasing this quilt on my other blog.  It's a signature quilt, so that's most important to me, but I also was drawn by the mix of 1930s blocks - I love album quilts too.  And because I like making quilts even more than collecting them, I started to reproduce a copy of this one in 1930s reproduction prints.

Where to begin? Begin at the beginning, in the top left hand corner.  This block was an easy one to make.  It's No. 725 in Barbara Brackman's BlockBase, and the published names are Basket of Diamonds, Flower Basket, Flower Pot, Jersey Tulip, Rainbow Cactus, The Disk and Century Plant.  I think Basket of Diamonds will do.

The block was made by Sarah Cannon.  Sarah married Rev. Thomas Jackson Cannon in 1884 and their first homestead was in Entiat Valley, Washington.  Thomas Cannon was a peacemaker between the white settlers and the Indians.  Sarah and Thomas's daughter Dema was the first white child born in the area.  In 1937 Sarah was 72 years old and a widow.

This is my Basket.  Finding matching prints is more difficult than I anticipated but I think these have worked well.  I'm making 10 inch blocks, the original quilt has blocks between 11 and 12 inches.