Here is what I did with the March Take It Further challenge. I worked with the colors on this, although this shot is not very accurate. I posted the fabrics here and those colors are closer to true.
This is a 10 1/2" block called Missouri Puzzle. As usual, I have a little story to go with this. Back in the early 1990's I was doing a lot of yardsale-ing to find some dressers or cabinets for storage. I went to an estate sale where I found what I was looking for, but I also found a box of crafting supplies. In fact, there was one whole room with patterns, fabric, and so on. The box I wanted had some swedish embroidery cloth in it - also known as huck toweling - along with some other items. At the very bottom of the box was this little booklet.
It is made of plain paper and held together with brads. Inside are a great many clippings of quilt patterns cut from magazines and newspapers. Now, one thing I found particularly interesting is that I found this estate sale in Yakima, Washington. All of the newspaper patterns, however, are from the Kansas City Star. The ones that have a date are from 1930, '31, and '32. This little book traveled from the midwest to the pacific northwest - and now has traveled back to the midwest over a span of 75 years!
Well, I decided to make the Missouri Puzzle - there are several I would like to try - mainly because I am familiar with the 9-patch and half-square triangle so I knew I could figure out how to construct at least one block (and it did take some figuring)! And someone, sometime, had marked it with a 3-cent stamp. By making this block, I feel there is a connection to the past somehow. A bit tenuous, perhaps, but there nontheless.
And now that I think about it - that fits "Sometimes the small things become emblematic for something larger. " The stamp, by it's denomination and location, represents a sense of the past. U.S. postage was three cents for quite a long time, and went up very slowly at first but has increased more rapidly of late. How about that for fitting into this month's concept? This piece is a twofer!
I still may do another piece for the concept. I've had lots of ideas buzzing around as previous posts show. But for the immediate future, I have several other projects in the pipeline. So if I run out of time, I have met this month's TIF challenge at least.
6 comments:
YOur finished block is great! I don't think I've seen this particular pattern before and what a great story behind it, thanks for sharing
What a nice quilt pattern - a great story and a great find at a yard sale - i like the idea of conecting with the past when using old finds
Fascinatingly beautiful. Liz, your imagination is DIVINE!
What a wonderful story and how precious those blocks and the little book are. I love what you did with it.
This is a really nice block, Liz. I also think your process and analysis for design is great. What a treasure you have in that little book. Kansas City Star patterns were quite prolific and much used throughout the US and are still popular among traditional quilt makers. Your interpretation is great.
This is a really nice block, Liz. Great interpretation and design analysis from the little booklet you found of Kansas City Star patterns. I've found that those patterns were much collected, loved and used throughout the U.S., and they are still loved by traditional quilt makers.
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