My New/Old Quilt: The Pomegranate Blocks

This is an unusual pattern from my recent quilt acquisition.

I've been calling it a sampler because my definition of a sampler

means at least 3 different blocks. 

And there are 3.

I'm trying to identify the source of the quilt by looking at the three patterns.

See more on the Feather Crown in the center here:

There are four blocks with this yellow

and red floral

I Photoshopped the block. Not quite accurate, but it shows you how the floral is positioned in the square block. I could not find a match for this floral in an antique quilt. Here are some similar block structures from about 1840-1890....

The design has no number or name in my Encyclopedia of Applique.

But it should. It was definitely passed around in the 19th century.

I found this one at the Quilt Index

from the Minnesota Quilt Project.

Maybe the design in my quilt is related to a pomegranate.

Which I saw on the Pook & Pook auction site, 

purchased I believe by a quilt historian.

Strange vines in another mid-19th-century applique from Stella Rubin

It's a wild garden.

Right before press time (so to speak)

I came across this photo of Paula Wexler and her

sampler designed by Jan Patek.

There are two blocks that are almost a replica of my pomegranate.

Here's another version from Dixie. The sampler is called

the Spencer Museum Quilt, published by Jan in 2007.

Where did Jan find that pattern?

Stay tuned.