Quilt Research

I have been working on patterns, but in the process, I fell down a rabbit hole at Newspapers.com. And I found some fun stuff.

First up, the Kansas City Star listing for Noon and Night, dated January 29, 1934. This was the earliest newspaper date I could find for this pattern. Others were dated February and March of that same year.

This one, from the Madison, WI Capital Times, indicates that it is a “Laura Wheeler” design and also includes a coupon for ordering.

I am still baffled as to why Noon and Night—and several dozen other patterns—were left out of compilations of Kansas City Star quilt blocks. Was the first compilation incomplete, and then the ones that followed simply propagated the mistake? That block was ridiculously hard to hunt down.

Here is Alice Brooks’ Three-Patch, the block that inspired Under the Big Top, from the Billings Gazette, May 27, 1937:

“Start soon, and have it all ready to show at the fall fair.” LOL.

And finally, the one I went looking for: Beginner’s Choice, another Laura Wheeler design, from the Palm Beach Post, November 9, 1940.

This is a good, clear, graphic and satisfies me that the block is composed of four chisel-shaped pieces and two trapezoid pieces. I need to stop thinking of old quilt block piecing in terms of 21st century techniques. That’s a failing on my part. A “beginner” in 2021 might find those shapes and the accompanying Y-seams difficult, but a “beginner” in 1940 would not. Changing the piecing to squares and half-square triangles does simplify the construction, though, and that’s how I am writing the pattern.

I am almost afraid to keep looking through the listings at Newspapers.com. “Laura Wheeler” also designed a bunch of knitting patterns, too. If I fell down that rabbit hole, I might be gone for weeks.

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I finished sewing the last two rows of the Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt together; I didn’t mean to leave that one languishing so long. I’ll piece the backing and think about how I want to quilt it.

We moved the chicks last night. I spent an hour yesterday morning mucking out that area of the chicken coop because we let the big chickens roost in there when we don’t have chicks. I did that first thing so I could then come in and take a shower. When the husband got home, he spread out a bale of pine shavings and then we moved the chicks in two batches—putting them in a deep Rubbermaid bin for transport—from the garage to the coop. The chick’s area is closed off from the rest of the coop, so even though they can see the big chickens and the big chickens can see them, the chicks are safe.