Nine Blocks---Another Nine Block Pattern

Many years ago a family loaned me quilts for photography

including this applique sampler they thought made in Jacksonville, Illinois.

I recognized the pattern as one pictured in Carrie Hall

& Rose Kretsinger's book Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in 1935.

Hall indicated it belonged to Amy Ellen Hall and was made

by Emma Ann Covert of Lebanon, Ohio about 1842.

The similarities were striking. Same 9 blocks (3 patterns)

arranged in the same fashion.

Same vase and vine border.

Here's an almost identical Ohio quilt made in Belmont,

in the collection of the Ohio Historical Society. Note the

extra sprigs around the central wreath.

From an online auction. The corner blocks are oriented the other way.

These 5 red and green applique samplers all look to be about 1840-1870.

A beauty by Hannah Johnson Haines, Jay County, Indiana & Moline, Illinois.

Collection of the Rock Island County Historical Society, Illinois.

Recorded in the Illinois project and pictured in their book.

The Arizona project found one brought from 

Columbia, Missouri. The applique is simpler, cruder and

the border is different. It's tough to say from the photo when this

was made.

These two look to be after 1930 by the pastel colors

Perhaps they saw Emma Covert's in Carrie Hall's book

or they might have ....

Well, how did they share the pattern???

A few months ago I discussed another 9 block designed in the format of a central block with two other appliques in the north/south axis and the diagonal corner blocks.

Like this. It's a great composition.

See that post here:

I am not the only person to notice what balanced design this is.

The central block in the group we're looking at today is a wreath with

 6 to 11 rotating leaves...

Not a very common pattern.

Here's another from a Double Irish Chain quilt

The corner blocks point the eye towards the center block with

a bouquet on an entwined stem and, in most of them, a circle or two of 7 dots.

Applique block from a quilt about 1900

The entwined stem is seen elsewhere but that combination of 

7 dots and the layout seems unique to this pattern.

The flower pots look like they have a dish to catch the drips underneath.

The paired florals also feature a group of 7 dots.

This sampler has been on my wanna make it list for years---I digitized some of the blocks for a start on a pattern. These should print at 8 inches and if you double that you'd have applique to fit a 16" or 18" block. 3 x 3 at 18" would equal 54" without any border.

Sandy Sutton did this remarkable small version for 

American Quilt Study Group's 2016 quilt

study focused on baskets. Repro quilt perfection!

Frances Shaw, attributed to Hagerstown, Maryland.

Found in the West Virginia project.

The border on these nine block quilts is a whole 'nother question. It's quite distinctive but not unique to this particular sampler. The West Virginia project saw many examples. Documenter Fawn Valentine nicknamed it the I-70 Border because the locations follow today's highway that was once the National Road---the major east/west travel path now and in the past. Xenia Cord is going to give a paper on the border at AQSG this fall.

Here's an 1850s map of the U.S. with an orange star

for every place mentioned in the sampler quilt histories above.

A national road of pattern sharing.

But what form of pattern?