June 23

UNION SQUARE, 6″, Light

Today, Britain votes to decide whether it remains in the European Union. For such a momentous referendum, I have chosen to make Union Square. Take the ‘Union’ to mean the European Union, or the Union Jack … depending on which way you think they should jump!

The block was published by Nancy Cabot in the Chicago Tribune in 1937 with slightly different proportions. She describes the origin of the block’s name.

Download June 23 instructions (as .pdf).

June 24

VIRGINIA REEL, 6″, Light

Clara Stone first published Virginia Reel in 1908, but it was also subsequently re-published by the Ladies Art Company (#484, 1922) as Tangled Lines. As you can see below, the Ladies Art Version did not have evenly spaced triangles in the corners or corners.

Please keep the extra F-G units for a block coming up in July!

Download June 24 instructions (as .pdf).

June 25

WYOMING VALLEY, 6″, Light

Today’s block is one from Nancy Cabot, published in the Chicago Tribune in 1936.

Download June 25 instructions (as .pdf).

June 26

CROSS-WITHIN-A-CROSS, 6″, Light

Today’s block is another from the Ladies Art Company (#313, 1897), although it was republished again by Carrie Hall and Rose Kretsinger in The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America, without alteration in 1935.

Download June 26 instructions (as .pdf).

June 27

NAVAJO, 6″, Light

I adore this block, although the maths for it has driven me to distraction! It has a wonderful space for a feature fabric or quilting. It is much easier to start with a centre square and fit the half-square triangles along it, than to draft it to a certain size, and this is what I would recommend if you were to make an entire quilt of it.

It was originally published by the Ladies Art Company(#513) in 1928, with only four half-square triangles along the centre square. Nancy Cabot published it as Indian Mats in the Chicago Tribune in 1935, this time with three half-square triangles along the centre square. She then used the name Navajo, for a slightly different block published in 1936 in the Chicago Tribune. Although she seemed intent on appliqueing the design!

There was also another similar block, also called Navajo, published in the Denver Free Press, Book No. 6, in 1933. Here it is, illustrated below:

Download June 27 instructions (as .pdf).

June 28

AUNT MALVINA’S CHAIN, 6″, Light

This is an ultra simplified version of Aunt Malvina’s Chain.

The original, first attributed to Nancy Cabot (although she spelled it Aunt Malvernia’s Chain), changes the orientation of the quarter-squares in the centre top and centre bottom units:

You have two choices of method today. If you use Method 1, feel free to copy Nancy Cabot’s layout. Otherwise, Method 2 will yield the simplified version.

The other occurrence of this pattern was in Quilt World, in 1979.

Method 1

Method 2

Download June 28 instructions (as .pdf).

June 29

CONTRARY WIFE, 6″, Light

Contrary Wife was first published in the Kansas City Star in 1941.

Download June 29 instructions (as .pdf).

http://www.365challenge.com.au/the-blocks/