STATE HOUSE / NEW FOUR PATCH
by Nancy Cabot
(aka "World's Fair Block")
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Quilt Notes: According to Jinny Beyer's QUILTER'S ALBUM OF PATCHWORK BLOCKS, this block was titled NEW FOUR PATCH and debuted in a magazine called a semi-monthly national farming magazine, called Farm and Fireside in 1884 (see a sample copy, from 1923). The block has many other names — Nancy Cabot (see left) illustrated it in her Chicago Tribune column, on June 22, 1937, as STATE HOUSE. Other titles include JACOB'S LADDER and also WORLD'S FAIR BLOCK, as listed in the Ladies Art Company Catalog (#66, rotated right, in 1897).
In her notes Nancy Cabot says that the design is "another one of those unusual and attractive pieced blocks which were fundamentally a four patch pattern." And she adds that the "block is simple and easily set together, and is not difficult for the beginning quilt maker to consider as her first attempt at this type of needlework. The blocks are large, measuring 16 inches when completed."
More designs set as a diagonal, include, for instance:
CORN AND BEANS
CRAZY QUILT
TOWERS OF CAMELOT
LEAP FROG
BIRDS IN THE AIR
WEST WIND
OLD MAID'S RAMBLER
MONKEY PUZZLE
BOSTON STREETS
FRESH START
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NEW FOUR PATCH (State House / World's Fair Block)
