April 20

ELECTRIC FAN

Electric Fan is the name given to this block in 1906 by Clara Stone in her booklet Practical Needlework: Quilt Patterns. However, it is probably better known by the name given by the Ladies Art Company in 1897 which is Big Dipper. I just love the imagery in the name Electric Fan, and that an electric fan would have been such a new and wonderful device in homes in 1906 .. so this is the name I’ve chosen.

This block has many aliases, including, Bow Ties from Nancy Cabot in the Chicago Tribune in 1938, and variously as Envelope Quilt Pattern, Hour Glass, and The Whirling Blade in the Kansas City Star over the years. Laura Wheeler called it One Patch, and Alice Brooks took up this baton, when she called it One Patch Quilt and Triangles, and an uncredited author called it Pinwheel in mail order patterns from the Old Chelsea Station Needlecraft Service. Other names are Crazy Quilt and in 1929, Yankee Puzzle.