CARDINAL POINTS
(with colors) by Carrie Hall
|
Quilt Notes:
CARDINAL POINTS is a Carrie Hall (1866-1955) block, dated back to the early 20th c. The original is owned by the Spencer Art Museum at the University of Kansas. See also Bettina Havig's delightful book, 800 CARRIE HALL BLOCKS, published in 1999 by the American Quilter's Society (p. 18).
The solid fabrics used for Hall's original patchwork are imitated in the rendering left. The design is comprised of two pieced triangles, alternating dark and light backgrounds, and set like a windmill round the center. Once the grid size is calculated (a somewhat unusual 26 x 26), it should not be at all difficult to draft or piece this very unique design.
CARDINAL POINTS are the four points on any compass, north, south, east and west. And so the pattern does seem appropriately named, and especially with the four light on dark, triangles in the center, pointing in the four directions (compare with DOVES IN THE WINDOW). There is something of a mystery in this block too, vaguely suggesting three dimensions, while seeming at once opaque and transparent. In addition, the whirling of the pattern might be reminiscent of the four winds, traditionally:
(1) North Wind = Boreas (Aquilo) bringer of cold winter air
(2) South Wind = Notus (Auster) bringer of storms: late summer-autumn
(3) West Wind = Zephyrus, bringer of spring and early summer breezes
(4) East Wind = Eurus (Favonius), all easterly winds
Compare at this site with:
MIGRATION SOUTH
STAR OF THE WEST
POLARIS STAR (the North Star)
BIRDS IN THE AIR
WESTWARD HO!
WINDBLOWN STAR
WEST WIND
|
CARDINAL POINTS
