Block by Block

Block by Block

Block By Block Banner

In the 1820s and 1830s, American quilts were increasingly made from pieced blocks—generally squares made up of smaller squares or triangles. American quiltmakers introduced the practice of alternating pieced blocks with un-pieced blocks made of a solid color or a single print, and set these elements straight (perpendicular to the edges of the quilt) or “on-point” (at 45° angles). Blocks were then attached to each other, or to strips of fabric called “sashing.” Unlike earlier quilts, which often featured multiple borders, block-style quilts generally had single borders or none at all. By the mid-1800s, the repetition and grid-like arrangement of similar blocks became the predominant format for American-made quilts.

As industrial manufacturing processes revolutionized everyday life, the American textile industry boomed. By the mid-1830s, factories in New England employed thousands of women and produced cloth in a great variety of colors. Cotton print fabric, now inexpensive and widely available, became the plentiful raw material of American patchwork, enabling quiltmakers to focus on color, geometry, and the interaction between them. Expanded educational opportunities for women—both formal and informal—contributed to their knowledge of mathematics, and to the development of block-style designs.

Block by Block is drawn from scholar Janice Frisch’s research for American Quilts in the Industrial Age, 1760-1870. Frisch suggests that the rise of block-style quilts mirrored the shift to the standardized, interchangeable parts that characterized industrial processes. The new, comprehensive catalog of the IQM Collection, edited by Patricia Crews and Carolyn Ducey, highlights the skillful needlework and dazzling designs of America’s material culture. The book will be available in February 2018.

Featured Media

Featured Media
Featured Media

Further Reading

Further Reading
Further Reading

American Quilts in the Industrial Age, 1760-1870, highlights the dazzling designs and intricate needlework of America's treasured material culture. From whole cloth to pieced quilts to elaborate appliqué examples, all reflecting various design movements such as neoclassicism and Eastern exoticism the contributing authors address the development of quiltmaking in America from its inception in the 1700s to the period of the U.S. civil War. With full-color photographs of nearly six hundred quilts, American Quilts in the Industrial Age, 1760-1870 offers new insights into American society.

Now available for purchase in the Museum Shop.

Works in the Exhibition

Works in the Exhibition

Nine Patch Variation
Maker Unknown
1813
Probably made in New England
2003.003.0383

An inscription on the quilt’s lower left reads “EH 1813,” and a tree-of-life motif on the lower right is flanked by the initials “E” and “H.” The embroidery penetrates through to the quilt’s back, signaling that it was added after the quilt was complete.

Garden Maze Star 
Label on back reads, “Given To: Carrie L. Hatch. By Grandmother Hurlbert in 1871.”
About 1820-1840
Possibly made in Montgomery County, PA
1997.007.0540

Quiltmakers adopted the use of sashing—strips of fabrics delineating blocks—in the 1830s, and the practice was originally unique to American makers. Here, diagonal sashing creates dual illusions of a lattice foreground and a mosaic-style background. The quilt’s two printed fabrics are smaller in scale than the chintzes found in European and early American patchwork, but larger than the calicos that were prevalent by the mid-1800s.

My Sweet Sister Emma
Martha Ann Warfield Knowles and Henrietta Graff Thomas
1843
Darby, PA
1997.007.0697

Solid and pieced blocks alternate, with white squares at the centers and corners of each nine-patch creating a secondary diagonal pattern. But despite an overall pieced pattern, the quilt’s conception as a center medallion is evident in the way that accent colors (red, blue, green, pink, etc.) are symmetrically positioned in successive frames.

A cross-stitched inscription on the back of this quilt reads “From M.A. Knowles. To her Sweet Sister Emma. Darby — 1843.” Each block is signed by family and church members, and a number of blocks include biblical inscriptions.

Delectable Mountains 
Maker unknown
About 1820-1830
Possibly made in Manheim, PA
1997.007.0756

Pieced from just two fabrics—a plain muslin and a medium-scale print—this quilt features the dense, elaborate quilting characteristic of quilts from the early 1800s. The combination of progressively larger right triangles creates a two-level medallion animated by sawtooth edges, or rows of small triangles. Can you find exceptions to the design’s mirror symmetry? 

Double Irish Chain 
Maker unknown
About 1840-1860
United States
1997.007.0850

The multi-patch blocks of the Irish Chain design recall British patchwork traditions. Increasingly popular in the U.S. after 1840, the pattern relies on the diagonal emphasis and corresponding negative space of a checkerboard arrangement, and on the designer’s skill in selecting colors that blend and contrast in interesting ways. Here, 25-patch blocks alternate with white squares that are anchored by small appliquéd squares in each corner. 

Touching Stars 
Lucretia Ann Fisher Larison
1841
Hunterdon County, NJ
2002.007.0001

Star patterns were the most popular in American quilts from the 1800s. Each of the nine large stars in this quilt contains 128 diamonds; the smaller stars and half-stars contain 256 diamonds. The acute angles of these shapes, and the precision with which they had to be drafted, cut, and sewn together, testify to their makers’ manual skills. 

The maker’s initials, and the date October 1, 1841 are quilted among the stars.  

Eight Pointed Star / Bars
Maker Unknown
About 1830-1850
United States
2006.043.0218

While most patterns found in early American quilts originated in England, Bars or Strippy quilts may have developed in the U.S. and transferred back to the U.K. The strips pieced from “on-point” stars represent the block style of quilts that was becoming prevalent in the U.S. in the mid-1800s. At first glance, the quilt’s wide, vertical stripes appear to be an infinite, or border-less pattern, but the design is contained or hemmed, however subtly, by solid half-diamonds—triangles—along its top and bottom edges. 

Mariner’s Compass
Maker Unknown
About 1830-1850
Probably made in Trumansburg, NY 
2007.031.0008

Derived by subdividing a circle into multiple arcs, the Mariner’s Compass is one of the earliest and most complex piecing patterns. Due to a lack of printed sources, the names of quilt patterns from the 1800s are rarely known, but the Mariner’s compass is an exception. Scholars believe that quiltmakers adopted the design from the compass motifs on navigation maps. 

Delectable Mountains Variation
Maker unknown
About 1840-1860
Probably made in Baltimore, MD
2013.002.0004

In this variation of the Delectable Mountains pattern, a single pieced block is rotated and repeated across the entire surface of the quilt. As quiltmakers started to combine and abut pieced blocks, background and foreground—or positive and negative space—became much less distinct. The pattern’s name is likely connected to John Bunyan’s 1678 book, The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Works in the Exhibition

Gallery Photos

Gallery Photos
Gallery Photos
This exhibition was made possible through funding from the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment. The Nebraska Arts Council, a state agency, has supported this exhibition through its matching grants program funded by the Nebraska Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment. Visit www.artscouncil.nebraska.gov for more information. Additional support provided by Friends of the International Quilt Museum. Additional support provided by Friends of the International Quilt Museum.
Past
Event Date
Friday, August 4, 2017 to Thursday, November 30, 2017