Another Antique Wild Goose Chase

My last post featured a wonderful two color antique Wild Goose Chase quilt made in the early 19th century.  Here is the same pattern in a quilt with fabrics dating mid to late 19th century.  The entire top is hand pieced.  The consistency in the quality workmanship points to the work of one individual.  The blocks are 11" square.  The top measures 44" x 77".  While the pieced blocks feature different fabrics, a single brown print was used consistently in the alternating blocks.

I purchased the top at an antique show this past summer.  Not only was the size a bit of a mystery to me, but there are two tops of the same wonderful quality and size.  It was two tops for the price of one!

My first inclination was to theorize if the quilt was a top for the Sanitary Commission since there was a call for quilts 4 feet by 7 feet.  Certainly this top would fall within the perimeters of what they were requesting for soldiers cots during the Civil War.

Were the two tops originally made to be one large quilt and then split down the middle for donation, but then put away and forgotten?  I'm not sure except to say this secret has been lost with the maker.

It's a dog...

The placement of the diamonds in a never ending pattern radiating out is similar to #4006 from the Encyclopedia of Pieced Patterns by Barbara Brackman.  It is called a Sunburst.

I purchased this top at an auction this past fall.  Since my interest has been 19th century rather than 20th century fabrics, I was surprised this top made its way home with me.  It is reminiscent of a style of quilts  Kaffe Fassett would be creating for his next fabric line.

This quilt is definitely a bold mix of late 30's, 40's and 50's fabrics from the scrapbag! 

Oh wait....   "It's a dog!"

Initially I wasn't overwhelmed with excitement about my purchase, however,  the dogs made it a hit.

My friend, Suzanne, talks repeatedly about the ability to market anything with a baby or a dog.  She often suggests that I retake photos of quilts and put our puppy in the picture.

"Consumers will stop and look at that picture over a plain quilt picture," she will tell me when I distress about the difficulty in capturing the essence of a quilt in photography.  A photographer I am not.  Maybe the dog will immediately confuse the observer to obsess about the cute pup rather than the quilt. 

The quilter who made this top didn't want to waste an inch of this precious dog print.  Even a paw peeking through the top of the diamond was enough to envision the rest of the dog hiding behind the other diamonds.

Here are some more fabrics I thought were interesting.  Fabrics prints to emulate  embroidered eyelet and lace netting:

I think getting a picture of our pup behaving would be more difficult than just capturing a good picture of a quilt.  Our puppy had a bad day yesterday.  It started out with my commenting about his sister graduating from obedience school.  Her picture was on Facebook with a graduation cap on.

Hold on.   YES, I'm talking about a dog. 

I told my family the only thing I could do would be to put a dunce cap on Indiana, snap a picture, plaster it in Facebook and let the world know where the wild genes in the DNA ended.  Mind you, our dog has his family lineage mapped out for generations whereas we can't even map out our family tree before the 20th century.  My son pointed this fact out to me when we were handed his pedigree.  He looked a bit sad.

My demeanor regarding Indiana Jones is tainted from living through his wild adventures yesterday.  Certainly he is taking his name seriously.  My son named him, so he should take responsibility for the outcome.  I hope he has better luck when naming his children (one day :) ).

Oh well, it is a new day.  I think Suzanne was right....  a dog in a picture can sell anything!

Happy Holidays from the household of Indiana Jones!