Deep Dive Tangent: Exploring the 1934 Cleopatra's Fan Block

Happy Tuesday, my Lovelies!  Today's post is a break from the Lo & Behold Deco quilt I've been working on (just four more rows to stitch together before that's a finished quilt top!), but we're not veering into totally unrelated territory.  Brittany of Lo & Behold Stitchery, who designed my Deco quilt pattern, says she was inspired by the Art Deco style of the 1920s-1940s in 2019, when she realized that we we were coming up on the centennial anniversary of this iconic design movement (and all of the dizzying cultural, social, and technological transformations that happened during its heyday).  

Despite the great number of surviving quilts dating to the 1920s-'40s, not many of these quilts reflect the Art Deco style that was dominant when these quilts were being made.  Perhaps that reflects who was (and who wasn't) making quilts during those years and what sewing and quilting symbolized at that time -- a traditional female domestic activity and not something the giddy modern flapper girls were excited about.  Were the "Modern Girls" of the 1920s and '30s too busy exploring new social and economic opportunities outside the home, working in shops or factories during the day and dancing their nights away in jazz clubs, challenging traditional Victorian gender ideals (and giving their mothers plenty to worry about as they stitched more traditionally styled quilt blocks by the fire)?  ;-). That's my theory, anyway.  Sometimes I just make things up as I go along.

In any case, we don't have a great many examples of the Art Deco style influencing quilters in the surviving vintage quilts from the period, but we do have some and the Cleopatra's Fan design is one of my favorites.  I'm taking you on a Deep Dive into the Cleopatra's Fan block today, because I own (but have not yet used) the AccuQuilt GO! 12" Cleopatra's Fan BOB (Block On Board) die (this post contains affiliate links) and I'm trying to decide whether to actually make a quilt with it -- or just rehome my die to someone else who will use it!

52 x 69 Cleopatra's Fan in Kaffe Fassett Collective Prints, 12 inch Blocks

Above is a Cleopatra's Fan quilt rendering that I created in my EQ8 Quilt Design software using Kaffe Fassett Collective print fabrics with coordinating solids.  I've said it before and I'll say it again -- my Electric Quilt software is the best value for the money of any quilting tool I own, including my Bernina sewing machine and my long arm!  With most of my quilts taking multiple years from the time I cut into fabric until I finish the binding, the ability to experiment with design ideas and see what a quilt would look like in the actual fabrics I'm considering ahead of time saves me from sinking time and money into quilts that disappoint me when they don't turn out looking as great as I imagined when I pulled those fabrics at the quilt shop.  So, in that rendering above, these are 12" finished Cleopatra's Fan blocks just like my 12" AccuQuilt die will cut out for me, and those Kaffe Fassett fabric prints are to scale as well, so the design rendering is actually giving me a pretty good idea of how those large scale botanical prints will look when they are cut into the actual size patches of these blocks.  Do I like this enough to make it?  I haven't decided yet; we'll circle back to that at the end of the blog post!  Next I want to explore the original Cleopatra's Fan pattern as it was published in 1934 in the Cincinnati Inquirer by Laura Wheeler Designs (note that "Laura Wheeler" was one of several fictitious byline used by a New York City pattern syndication company that also went by many different names; you can read more about the company on Barbara Brackman's blog here):

Cleopatra's Fan Pattern Attributed to Laura Wheeler Designs, First Published in 1934

Up until fairly recently, the vast majority of quilts were designed and made as bed coverings rather than as wall hangings or throws.  Just to give you some context, here's an example of "modern" Art Deco bedroom furniture from a 1934 advertisement.  (I was unable to find a source attribution for this image but will update in the future if possible):

1934 Ad for Art Deco Bedroom Furniture

Isn't that fun?  And now, can't you just imagine this vintage Cleopatra's Fan quilt (below) on the bed in the magazine ad, with the sleek radiating curves of the quilt block's piecing lines echoing the radial seams in the headboard's veneer?  You may need to zoom in to see that on the photo if you're reading this on your mobile phone.

Vintage Cleopatra's Fan Quilt circa 1940s, Augusta Auctions

This is actually the first Cleopatra's Fan quilt I ever saw, an image from Augusta Auctions that I stumbled across on Pinterest years ago.  I was intrigued because I'd never seen the block before and the auction house didn't identify the quilt pattern in their auction description.  They just dated it to circa 1940s based on the fabrics.  

Star of North Carolina: AccuQuilt vs. Electric Quilt Software

Happy Friday, Quilty Peeps!  I took a little design detour yesterday, playing around with a historical quilt block called Star of North Carolina in an updated color scheme of Kona Solid fabrics.

My 58 x 74 Star of NC Design, Using 8 Inch Blocks

I became aware of this block recently when AccuQuilt reintroduced their limited edition 12" North Carolina Star BOB (Block On Board) die as a permanent offering.  "Block On Board" (BOB) refers to AccuQuilt dies that are designed to cut all of the shapes needed for a particular quilt block with a single pass through the die cutting machine.  (By the way, all of AccuQuilt's BOB dies are on sale 20% off, now through January 30th.  This post contains affiliate links).

AccuQuilt's 12 Inch North Carolina Star BOB Die

Barbara Brackman's definitive reference book, the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, 3rd Ed., identifies this as Block #473 in the Ladies' Art Company Catalog that was published from 1889 through the 1970s.  

Quilter Goes Rogue: Slipping a Rose Dream In Amongst the Farmer's Wives

6" Rose Dream Quilt Block

I made something yesterday!  Well, actually I made it bit by bit over the last few days, one wretched little curved seam at a time, and I finished it yesterday.  It probably took me 15-20 minutes to pin each pair of opposite curved pieces together.  Once they were pinned, they were easy enough to stitch, but then pressing the little devils without distorting the bias was challenging as well.  I probably should have starched the fabrics before I cut out the pieces.

This Many Pins

The Rose Dream quilt block, first published in the Kansas City Star newspaper in 1930,  first caught my eye when Charise of Charise Creates featured it as the first block in her 2012 Vintage Quilt Block Quilt Along.  So I've had this block in the back of my mind for four years.

Charise's Rose Dream Quilt Block

I love Charise's fresh modern take on vintage style.  She has a knack for finding very special fabrics and uses them in interesting ways, often fussy cutting a word or pattern motif for a detailed effect.  Notice how she has centered a strawberry in one patch, an ornate teapot in another, and the text in the tiny center squares.

Original Rose Dream Pattern, 1930 Kansas City Star

The vintage quilt below that I found at an auction site online (thank you, Google) is similar to how I imagine most 'thirties quilters would have used this block pattern when it was originally published, combining a solid background fabric with an assortment of prints as per the newspaper instructions:

Vintage Rose Dream Quilt

The original Kansas City Star pattern was for a 13" finished block, and Charise redrafted her block to finish at 12" and offered a free PDF with templates along with an excellent tutorial for piecing the block.  But I decided to make a 6" version of the Rose Dream block out of this solid red and this small-scale floral print so I could sneak it in with the other 6" blocks I've been making from the 1930s Farmer's Wife book.

Fabric Picks for my Rose Dream Block

After all, the Quilt Police is NOT really a thing, so who's going to stop me?  Although the three blocks I've made so far for this sampler quilt have all been from the 1930s Farmer's Wife quilt book, I do have the previous book with the 1920s inspiration letters and block designs and had planned to make only the blocks I felt like making from either book and then mix them up together once I had enough for a quilt.  Because, really, it's my quilt and I can do whatever I want with it, right?  I could even resize some of the 4" Dear Jane blocks a little larger and put them in with the Farmer's Wife blocks, too.  Scandalous, right?!

So anyway, back to the Rose Dream block.  First I thought that I would just print Charise's templates for a 12" block and then use the copier to reduce them by 50%, but then I realized that Charise's templates include 1/4" seam allowances that would be only 1/8" seam allowances after reducing with the copier.  The original newspaper templates did not include seam allowances, but the scanned images of the newspaper clipping that I found online were not actual size, either.  I thought of trying to do an old-school grid enlargement on graph paper, the way Anders did his Spiderman drawing enlargement in art class this year, but then I remembered TECHNOLOGY.

BlockBase Software from EQ

Barbara Brackman's BlockBase for EQ to the rescue!  BlockBase is an add-on to EQ7 quilting design software that can also stand alone as a digital block reference library.  My husband and sons got it for me for my birthday or Christmas or something.  Why didn't I think of it earlier, before I wasted all that time messing with the photocopier like it was the 1980s or something?!  In BlockBase, I was able to enter the keywords "rose dream" and this block came up immediately, ready to print in whatever size my little heart should desire. 

Rose Dream Fabric and Templates, Ready to Cut

That little square measures exactly 1" including the seam allowance, so I cut those squares out with a rotary cutter and ruler instead of using the cardstock templates like I did for the curved pieces.

Rose Dream with FW 1930s Blocks 1-3

Right now they don't really go together very well, but I don't really care.  Once I have a whole boatload of 6" blocks that don't really go together, I'll sew them all together and it will be a "scrappy sampler."  If I find some more blocks with curved piecing or applique like the Rose Dream block, that will help. 

One of my kiddos comes home tomorrow afternoon!  He's been in Florida with our high school youth group choir, singing at a variety of Lutheran churches and visiting amusement parks with his church friends.  The house has been VERY quiet all week.  I'm almost looking forward to the sound of video games on the PlayStation!

I'm linking up with Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation, and Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts, Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts, and Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.

Jingle BOM Alternate Pieced Block: 54-40 or Fight!

Alternate Pieced Block: 54-40 or Fight

So as I'm nearing the end of the block construction phase for my Jingle BOM (designed by Erin Russek of One Piece at a Time, patterns and instructions found here), I've been looking at the finished blocks up on my design wall, trying to picture the finished quilt with the setting triangles and borders, and feeling... underenthused.  As I've been hand stitching that center medallion applique, I've been playing out different scenarios for this quilt in the back of my mind.  There will need to be pieced setting triangles, or pieced borders, or both.  And there is at least one pieced block up on that wall that I REALLY do not like. 

 

So I hauled out a bunch of quilt books and hunted through them for a different block that I would like better, and came up with the oddly-named 54-40 or Fight block (which got its name from James Polk's 1844 Presidential campaign slogan, capitalizing on "Oregon Fever" and Manifest Destiny).  Just a tidbit of history trivia for you there; can't help myself.

 

Completed Jingle Blocks, Including the Ugly Block

I found this block in two of my quilting books, both of which recommended using templates for the triangle-in-a-square units, and neither of which included instructions for a 9" finished block, the size needed for this project.  I have no idea how to make or use a template and was not in the mood to go that route, but I do own a set of Nifty Notions Cut for the Cure specialty rulers that includes two rulers ideally suited for this block, the Half Rectangle Triangle and the Bias Triangle rulers.  Since I'm making a 9" finished block and my triangle-in-a-square units need to finish at 3" square, I added 1/2" for the seam allowances and cut myself a 3 1/2" strip of green fabric and a 3 1/2" strip of cream and gold background fabric.  I used the Half Rectangle ruler to quickly and painlessly cut pairs of star point triangles from the green strip, and I used the Bias Triangle ruler to just as quickly cut the background triangles from the other strip.  There's even a little notch on the ruler to help you perfectly align the triangles for stitching, and from that point this unit goes together as easily as a Flying Geese unit.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this block!  I also love that I have learned enough about block grids and rulers that I was able to just look at the block and start cutting, without having to find instructions for my block size or do any convoluted math. 

 

I do still have one more pieced block to complete per Erin's pattern, one that I actually do think that I'll like, so the Ugly Block is staying on the wall for the time being.  Maybe I'll get adventurous and replace or tweak some of the other blocks as well.