Wool Tumbling Block Quilt

Wool baby block; one of the oldest patterns in the donors collection. The wool is pieced by machine with new binding.

This quilt came from a collection found in a house located in Deadwood, South Dakota in 1977. The donor's aunt, Mrs. Lucille Pugh and husband purchased the house in Deadwood, South Dakota in 1916. The house was then passed to the donor's mother. It was discovered that the quilts were made by the members of the family over the years.

Tumbling Blocks' is one of the most recognizable quilt patterns. As popular today as it was from the mid to late 1800s, it is a requisite pattern for any quilt collection. The roots of the pattern date back far longer than its use for American quilts. Tumbling Blocks has a long history in the grammar of ornament, dating back as far as ancient Greece, when the pattern appeared as a mosaic floor design. It may have been introduced into quiltmaking in the 1850s; Godey’s Lady’s Book published the pattern in an 1851 issue. Also known as cubework, the stunningly optical results of floating, stacked, and overall cubic arrangements are achieved through the distribution of color and light and dark pieces.” [1] The pattern is sometimes known as 'Baby’s Blocks'... In [Jonathon] Holstein’s 1972 book The Pieced Quilt: An American Design Tradition, he asserted that the pattern 'which originated in the last half of the nineteenth century is similar to the optical experiments of some contemporary painters..'" (Jeffery McCullough, June 26, 2018,https://www.cooperhewitt.org/2018/06/26/tumbling-blocks/).

Techniques: Machine pieced
Culture: American
Geographic Location: North and Central America - United States
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. J. C. Jeffery