(LAC Catalogue 1895, #58)
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Quilt Notes:
Designs similar to this one, that is, set on a diagonal and illustrating all manner of baskets of flowers and fruits are popular in quiltdom, so that it is sometimes hard to distinguish them by name. TEXAS ROSE, also called CACTUS BASKET, and DESERT ROSE or TEXAS TREASURE (see Brackman's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PIECED QUILT PATTERNS, #729), was first illustrated in print in Ruth Finley's OLD PATCHWORK QUILTS AND THE WOMEN WHO MADE THEM (1929), cf. p.93. Finley's book is still in print — her insights truly ageless and priceless, but today her book begins with a fascinating and highly informative introduction by Barbara Brackman.
Nancy Cabot, a contemporary of Ruth Finley, illustrated CACTUS BASKET in her column in the Chicago Tribune on January 23, 1933. But also in her newspaper article which accompanied the CHERRY BASKET block (see left), she explains a long lost tradition as regards these basket type quilt patterns:
"Just as we made May baskets of fragile tissue and ruffled crêpe paper and filled them with wild flowers to be left mysteriously on the doorsteps of our childhood sweethearts, many years ago, it was customary to weave cherry baskets of shiny glazed paper strips and fill them with ripe cherries to be presented as gifts to friends. Today's quilt pattern honors that neighborly custom, now obsolete."
More object-oriented designs at this site include:
CROSSED CANOES
DANCING CUBES
BOX KITE
GRANDMOTHER'S FAN
ANN'S DOLL QUILT
WISHING RING
SHIFTING CUBES
CHINESE GONGS
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TEXAS ROSE / CACTUS BASKET
