A new applique project for May.
It's a combination of piecing and applique.
Collector Mary Barton found a top fragment. When she
donated it to the Iowa Historical Society she called it Double Apple.
The only published name I've found---
from the Farm Journal
Dated 1849 by Mary E. Mills
from Fourth Corner Antiques
One from Cindy's Antiques. There's a lot
of variation. It's a single pieced flower
with a circle in the center and an appliqued stem on one side.
From GBBest on eBay.
Leaves or buds may be along the edges.
The examples I have look mid-19th century.
I've got two from the Quilt Index.
This one from the Minnesota project
Another from Quilts of Tennessee
A relative
The latest version I found. Maybe 1880-1910.
Perhaps someone's pattern block
I wanted a pattern. I realized it's probably related to the structure of a Reel block and I could probably draw it myself.
So I found a pieced Reel block in BlockBase...
#P018
Imported it to EQ for a basic pattern structure
and erased and added lines.
Here's my EQ drawing.
I re-oriented it in Photoshop & added some applique parts from the antique examples.
You get the picture.
You can print these JPGs out at 8"
and then double them for a large block
Here are templates for an 8" block from EQ:
Print it on an 8-1/2 x 11" sheet.
I'd make it at least 150% larger.
(You'll have to redraw the seam allowances if you enlarge it.)
In Kansas we have a sunflowery plant
called Compass Plant or Compass Flower
because it orients towards the sun.
Silphium laciniatum doesn't look much like the pattern
but you draw the quilt design with a compass so....
If you do a web search for Compass Flower
you also find instructions on how to draw overlapping
circles, which is probably where the old pattern comes from.
A link to some mathematics:
http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/57850.html
And here's another relative.
All appliqued.