Thursday, February 14, 2013

"Fire on the Mountain"


An interesting quilt popped up the other day, and I just had to have it. The pattern looked like a sun over a mountain, possibly a variation on touching stars, but it just didn't seem familiar. So I posted a picture to Facebook, shared it with the group, "Quilts- Vintage and Antique" and soon learned what it was. People had various ideas about what it was, from pyramids to mountains with suns. Teddy Pruett thought it should be called "Fire on the Mountain" and I laughed - that's a Grateful Dead tune.


Sandra Starley posted two pattern names, and Wilene Smith posted these pictures. Two of them were pattern names Sandra had mentioned.

The Peony Block for Patchwork in Farm and Home
(Phelps, Springfield, Mass.), May 15, 1894
Ladies' Art Company No. 308, Peony Block, ca. May 1897
Nancy Cabot / Chicago Tribune, Modern Peony,
April 20, 1935
Thank you Sandra and Wilene, and everyone else who replied. The funny thing was, I'd seen the pattern before but didn't recognize it because of the way the maker used color. It looked much more like a sun over a mountain than a peony. I wonder if the maker also saw a sun over a mountain?





One more little tidbit- a name inked on one of the back corners. Looked like Fern Polk. Will see if I can dig up more information, and I'm especially looking forward to seeing the quilt in person because I'm still waffling on the date. Could be as early as the 30s or 40s, but could just as easily be 70s. Maybe the name will help us figure it out. 

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  4. Sorry about those removed comments. I was trying to get rid of spam before drinking my coffee, and this is what happened. Note to spammers: don't bother with this blog. I delete all messages, LOL!

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