Tic Tac Blocks 5

More pinks and more directional fabrics.

The big prints make this one fun to look at.

Ok, I've got to stop. There are 39 blocks on this quilt, I've shown 15. So imagine how fun it is to just sit and look at the whole quilt. One more thing - my Dad loves this one too. I'm always surprised when he reacts strongly to one of my quilts, for the longest time he hardly noticed them. He thought this one was great. He thought it was really old too. I don't, I think the fabrics are from the 40s or 50s. What do you think?

Tic Tac Blocks 4

 

This group features blocks with pink fabrics.

 

I love how the stripes go all different directions on this one.

 The one red piece really sings, doesn't it?

Tic Tac Blocks 3

I love the background on this block.

The background of this one is wild too! And I love how the center is pieced.....

Three wild backgrounds!

Tic Tac Blocks 2

Boy fabrics, for sure. Note the tiny piece added to one corner.

I love how the middle square is pieced on this block.

Somehow they all fit together!

Tic Tac Blocks 1

Here are more blocks from the Tic Tac Toe quilt. I love how the stripes pull your eye around and around this block.

 Something about this one looks like a child-drawn stick figure to me.

This one looks person-like to me too: the body is the striped part, the light part is the head, the rest arms and legs.....

Tic Tac Toe

This quilt isn't perfect but I think it did have my name on it. I found it last week in an antique mall near Columbia, Missouri and paid $35 to bring it home to admire.

I found the pattern in the Encyclopedia. Block 2770: At the Depot (Clara Stone), Railroad Crossing (KC Star 8/21/35) - I'll bet my maker used that Star pattern....

It measures 68" x 82". The blocks do vary in size - one measured 9" square, another 7 1/2" square. So putting the blocks on point with setting triangles between makes sense (and is a good way to deal with different size blocks we might want to set into a quilt....). It is assembled in columns.

I love looking at this quilt. No blocks are alike - the fabrics are mostly worn clothing. Some have worn away and the binding is worn. This quilt was well-loved and well-used.

So here's my plan: I am loving the uniqueness of so many of these blocks, I will post a couple per day for a while so you can see the wildness too.

A Rosy Rocky Road

I bought this thrifty little quilt because I thought a Kansas quilter should have a Rocky Road to Kansas quilt. And this one is in such UN-likely Rocky Road colors. Pink borders? Who puts pink borders on a Rocky Road to Kansas quilt?

Well, someone did. Many of the blocks look like they were assembled in the same time frame and same low-contrast values, with pastel stripes and a few old feedsack prints thrown in. And then there is that one row. With reds! plaids! navy blue prints! Those 4 blocks look like they arrived from another planet to me.

This quilt measures 77" x 87". The blocks are ~15" square. It's machine pieced and simply hand quilted.

Garage sale season is here

It SHOULD be warm enough to have a garage sale on April 16 in Kansas. But you never know......

The quilt historian nearly froze yesterday morning. It just didn't warm up much until afternoon. But look how pretty her garage sale was. I always love to go by because there are quilts on the fence.

I don't notice many other sales like it.

Seeing quilts on buildings

Do you ever look at a building and see a quilt? Look what I saw when I came out of the post office the other day.

I had seen the Dakota Theatre in downtown Yankton, South Dakota before. But I hadn't noticed what so clearly looked like a quilt design on it's facade before.

The Internet reveals that the theatre opened in 1902 as the Yankton Opera House. New owners in 1921 renamed it the Hess Theatre - a grand reopening then featured a $10,000 pipe organ, cushioned opera chairs and large pendant chandeliers. Looks like it became the Dakota in 1929. It closed in 1987 but was reopened in 1993. Renovation continues today.

I like the dots at the top. You can read more about it here.

Sweet Baskets

I found this quilt a while back and could not pass it up because it is so sweet - and a little unusual, I think.

It surely was made to cover a very specific bed, as it measures 42" x 75". Each basket block measures 8 1/2" square. It is hand-pieced and hand-quilted.

The wear fascinates me. Some fabrics have completely worn away (second block from top, middle). Some fabrics have completely faded away (top middle block). And some are off (top right block). Hmmm, maybe a child pieced this....

Note that there are side borders that finish in a knife edge with tiny prairie points showing. When the quilt historian saw this, she opined that those might be commercially made prairie points, once popular like manufactured binding was. Of course, she is likely on to something here. It came from Ottawa, Kansas.