Schoolhouse or Honeymoon Cottage?

I have written about these schoolhouse blocks in a previous post. The Malaga quilt has four in all, each one a little different.  The 19th century schoolhouse block doesn't seem to fit in a 1930s quilt, so I wondered what might be more appropriate in a feedsack quilt.

Ruby McKim has two options.  The first one is called House on the Hill.

House on the Hill is a simple house block, quite reminiscent of Schoolhouse. I haven't made this one yet. I'd like to try it as a six inch block but it might be better as a nine inch.

My preferred 1930s option is also in Ruby McKim's book, it is Honeymoon Cottage.  I first saw Honeymoon Cottage in a quilt for sale online.

The quilt was enchanting, even though the path lead to the chimney and not to the front door.  I couldn't afford to buy the quilt so I made a block of my own.

Shortly after I finished my own block I found another Honeymoon cottage online.  I could afford this one and that's it on the right.


I constructed another cottage for this current project.

(The colours aren't quite right but it's too late in the evening to fix it. The roof is blue.) The pattern is in 874 in BlockBase.  I printed it in EQ7 as 9 x 11 inches rather than 12 inches square.  I printed the pattern onto two applique wash away sheets.  I cut the pieces apart and ironed onto the back of my fabric.  Then I hand pieced the block as if it was English paper pieced.  It was a nice project to take on a long weekend away, and the end result is very neat (for me - I'm not a perfectionist).

Appealing Yet Absurd

I have been looking for information on the traditional House or Schoolhouse block.

House Block  from Malaga 1937

The house block appeared in quilts at the end of the 19^th century.  It was firstly called Log Cabin, then Old Kentucky Home, Old Folks at Home or Lincoln’s Log Cabin.

I discovered that it was first called Little Red Schoolhouse in 1929 by Ruth Finley in “Old Patchwork Quilts and the Women Who Made Them.” I went to my bookshelf to see if Finley had any more information on the pattern. 

I discovered that Finley wasn’t a big fan of this block.  In her opinion the pattern was “appealing yet absurd”.  She dates it as a “new” pattern, i.e. appearing after 1870.

Finley mourned the demise of quality needlework due in part to the Victorian era.

“… no well-known pattern was evolved after 1880…. As a universal medium of feminine expression, quilt-making ceased to exist.  It vanished in the general night, as it were, of hideousness.”  page 196-197

My House blocks - "appealing yet absurd"

I wonder what Ruth Finley thought of Sunbonnet Sue?