Need Ideas for Mystery Blocks

[Beth A.]

I write our guild's newsletter and I started a new feature called WHAT IS THE NAME OF THIS BLOCK. I started doing this to try and spark interest and creativity. We were all getting tired of quilts made with the same old blocks ( Ohio Star, Monkey Wrench, etc) that were being shown in the quilting magazines just to hawk fabric. We were also trying expand our knowledge base about the history of quilt blocks and quilting.

I have been picking blocks from my research in old magazines, Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia, and Block Base for ideas. I then publish a picture of the block and guild members guess at the name of the block. A small door prize is reward to those with the correct answer. I will often write up the directions for making a quilt using the block. I am especially fond of blocks that develop a secondary pattern or can be set in multiple settings. My current problem is coming up with some new blocks for the next couple of months.

Do you have a favorite block that would be suitable. The more obscure the better.


Thank you in advance...
Anna

[Beth A.]

I suggest the Cuesta's Choice block, made in honor of Cuesta Benberry. It's certainly obscure and, depending on the color placements, creates many secondary patterns. Here's a link so that you can see it:
http://www.quiltindex.org/basicdispl...useum-a0d5h8-a

Please note that the block itself is just the center of this quilt and doesn't include all of the borders.

[Beth A.]

This block is pretty, unique and the directions are there:

http://selvageblog.blogspot.com/search?q=guild+block

JoAnne

[Beth A.]

This block is pretty, unique and the directions are there:

http://selvageblog.blogspot.com/search?q=guild+block

JoAnne

Hi JoAnne,

I love this "Candy Stix" block and it looks pretty easy to make, so I'll have to try it.

Thanks for sharing,
Nancy

[Beth A.]

Alex has some beautiful blocks on her block party page of her web site. Maybe one of those would work? Have fun. Sandi in FL

[Beth A.]

Only problem with Cruesta Choice block is we are doing a bus tour to MSU to see the entire collection this coming February. We already have 30 of the ladies have sign up for the tour. I would use it for January's block but I already have January's newsletter at the printers. Our tour is in February ... weather permitting. I am looking forward to the trip we have pre arranged a special lecture by one of the docents and it should be interesting.

I will keep this block in mind if we post pone the trip to better weather driving... In MI we always have contingency snow days planned for any trips away from home. As a back up I am going to down load the picture of the block so I can draft it in EQ and play with it. I can see a lot of possibilities but I get my best view of a new block / quilt by playing in EQ

Thanks for your idea!



'''''''~
Unpacking Collections: The Legacy of Cuesta Benberry, An African American Quilt Scholar
December 6, 2009 - September 5, 2010
Michigan State University Museum

Cuesta Benberry of St. Louis, Missouri, was one of the twentieth-century's pioneers of research on American quiltmaking and she was the pioneer of research on African American quilt making. Benberry was a founding member of the American Quilt Study Group, was inducted into the Quilter's Hall of Fame in 1983, was among the first honorees of Faith Ringgold's Anyone Can Fly Foundation, and is a Quilt Treasure in the on-line multi-media project of Michigan State University Museum and the Alliance for American Quilts.

In 1977, she gave the Quilter's Hall of Fame her study collection of over 800 quilt blocks, a scrapbook, and a few pieces of ephemera. In 2003 Cuesta gifted the American Folk Art Museum with the non-African American portions of her quilt ephemera collection. In 2007 Cuesta passed away leaving behind a legacy of public scholarship and her collections. In mid 2008, her family gifted the Michigan State University Museum with her collection of African and African American quilts and her quilt history collection and the museum also acquired Cuesta's extensive collection of quilt kits. In 2009, the American Folk Art Museum transferred their Benberry Collections to the MSU Museum so that the bulk of her work could be in one place where it could be more effectively accessed for research and educational uses.

Over the past year, MSU Museum staff, students, and volunteers have been sifting through, cataloguing, and re-housing Cuesta's collection. In the process, these workers have been engaging in discussions of their observations about both the collection and the collector and the issues and insights that are raised when one "unpacks" the work of a scholar/collector.

This exhibition, then, is an attempt to understand the work of Cuesta Benberry, one of America's important collector/scholars, through interacting with a selection of textiles, rare books, patterns, ephemera, and samples of her personal journals, correspondence, and extensive research files.

Unpacking Collections: The Legacy of Cuesta Benberry, An African American Quilt Scholar runs in the MSU Museum's Heritage Gallery from **December 6, 2009 - September 5, 2010 before it begins a national tour.

[Beth A.]

http://www.museum.msu.edu/glqc/onlinenewsletter.html

I probably should have posted the link to MSU QUILT MUSEUM