ISO Quilt Block History Book

a quick google found these which you may find helpful:

there is a great book out called: The Quilters, Women and Domestic Art: An Oral History. By Patricia J Cooper. you'll find it on Amazon.com. I have this book and it is just delightful. i dont know the author or where i got it from, but it has great stories in it about early TX and NM women who crossed country in covered wagons, etc and settled there, and their decendents, too.

amy in CNY

_The Quilter's Album of Blocks and Borders_ by Jinny Beyer gives the year that a particular block appeared in print and which magazine or newspaper it appeared in. It's not as complete as Brackman's Encyclopedia, but it's nicely illustrated and gives a little more information.

Still, it's not what you're looking for. I asked a similar question several years ago and never found the book I wanted. I wanted something that would give me the quilt block, mention an antique quilt or two that used the block, tell me when it first appeared in print, illustrate it, and tell an anecdote about it. (I love the idea of an antidote to quilt patterns. Abstract tension, anyone?)

The best I can figure is that the only way to go is to work backwards. Start with the antique quilt. There should be information on them at museum sites. Or start with the mention of the quilt in old letters and diaries. Then gather the information about the blocks, patterns, and stories from there.

One of the things I discovered is that there's no single history to any of the familiar patterns. A block can go by many different names. It may have been invented or designed by many quilters in different places. An illustrative story may be told, then refuted.

--Lia

I think your last paragraph may demonstrate why such information might not be found. The same block could be independently designed by several people by drawing lines in a grid of some sort. The Underground Railroad stories illustrate how "historical" information on certain blocks can later be found to be folklore, not based on researchable facts. I would think most quilt block designs are just that......designs drawn by experimental and artistic people looking to work with a new pattern, perhaps inspired by something seen in everyday life. But that inspiration probably wouldn't be credited in any way.

That's interesting, Kathyl. And, I think, it is more than possible that two completely separate people - in time and/or location - could have designed exactly the same block and called it by a different name. People didn't tend to live for the benefit of historians and archivists >gg< . In message , KJ writes

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I will pass them on to the curator. Yes, it would seem that this would be an impossible book to write. As we are separating the loose blocks into piles & referring to the Barbara Brackman Encyclopedia, we often find ourselves wondering if a particular block started as one block and the quilter put her own spin on it, as we often cannot find an example in the book. Some of the quilts & blocks & buttons are truly amazing. I'm coveting some sort of lone star blocks that were never assembled into a top.

Pauline Northern California

Pauline, the EQ program, "BlockBase" is basically a searchable version of Barbara Brackman's "Encyclopedia" on CD. It is wonderful because there are colors added to the blocks, and that may help explain why the same basic block, with different values in different places may have a different name. (That makes sense to me, hope it does to you all,) What is nice with BlockBase is that you can see all the different blocks that go by the same name at one time, as well as see all the different names, along with where published for each block. And you can see the blocks better and "bigger" than in the book. (I discovered that one block I have made, which has 16 seams coming together in the center is supposed to have a circle covering the center. When I saw it in the book I thought that it was just a "blob" where all the seams crossed and did it (twice!!) without the center circle. )

Great resource, but not a lot of history on the how/why of naming the blocks, just when and where they were published.

I have seen bits and pieces about different blocks' histories. But never found a comprehensive source for this type of thing.

Pati, > Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I will pass them on to the