Introducing My Next Door Neighbor

 This week's block from 90 Years Ago is called Next Door Neighbor.

 

The actual history of today’s design, and its designer, was lost long ago, but the pattern is ideal for the first effort of the beginning quilter.  Four all over print materials in lavender, pink, blue and red make a dainty and thoroughly feminine coverlet.

Chicago Tribune January 16, 1934

 

Next Door Neighbor

 

"...the pattern is ideal for the first effort of the beginning quilter."  Uhmm ........ no.  I found this block trickier than I anticipated and there was some reverse sewing involved.  I also didn't use the suggested colour scheme of red, blue, pink and lavender.

I'm not much good at being a next door neighbour either, because there isn't a house next door.  This is the view from my back veranda.

But if you zoom in over the fence, there is someone next door in that photo.  I'll zoom for you:

 

Can I count kangaroos as neighbours?

Broken Path? No, the Path Goes On

 This is the story of the quilt that features in the header above.

 

This signature quilt top contains a few mysteries to be uncovered.  It is just a top, never made into a quilt, so it has never been used or washed.  The colors are bright and the prints are remarkable.  The center of the quilt top contains blocks dated 1934 with a single 1933 block.  The top was made bigger with blocks dated 1938 and 1939.  It finished with a row down the right hand side dated 1946 and 1948.

 

 

 

Initial research shows that the names on the blocks are from an extended family.  Most of the locations are Wayne City, Illinois, with a few from Oklahoma and Kansas.  But I don’t think family women each made their own block.  The embroidery has been done by the same seamstress and the blocks are very uniform in size.  I think was the work of one woman, and I wonder if it was made from dressmaking scraps donated by each person represented - which would account for the variety and lack of color scheme.

 

The block chosen is another mystery.  I have not been able to find a name for it, the closest design so far is The Broken Path.

 

Broken Path   Weekly Kansas City Star October 25, 1939

 

 Close, but not quite.  I have chosen to call my reproduction block The Path Goes On.

It looks like it is waiting for a name.