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Quilt Notes: THE XQUISITE made it's print debut in the Ladies Art Company Catalgue #281, in the late 19th century. The name play on the "X" of Xquisite. created by the double triangles, is ingenious and delightful. Nancy Cabot illustrated the design on June 21, 1934, in the Chicago Tribune, with each lozenge a four-patch block. See Jinny Beyer's QUILTER'S ALBUM OF PATCHWORK PATTERNS, p.105, #8-10.
The design is a continuous pattern, the individual blocks can be a 16 or a 9 patch.
It can also be pieced with a different fabric for each of the lozenges or the tiny triangles, see the example in Better Homes and Gardens: 501 QUILT BLOCKS, Meredith Books, 1994, and the rendering here upper right.
Nancy Cabot says in her column that THE XQUISITE is "one of the oldest known" blocks and its "extreme simplicity" (see upper left) makes it "one of the most striking coverlets in the whole quilt world."
Emily Dickinson's exceedingly simple writing desk, her own square block, where she created masterpieces of poetry, is illustrated left. It faced a window, and Emily chose that space as a source of her inspiration. After she passed on, in the 1880's, Emily's poetry startled and profoundly impressed the literary world with its own very simple insights that nevertheless seemed to embrace the cosmos. See ENTERTAINING MOTIONS for a list of quilt patterns at this site celebrating Emily Dickinson's poetry. For more designs inspired by simplicity see:
HOMESPUN
A THOUSAND PYRAMIDS
CENTURY OF PROGRESS
STRAIGHT FURROW
ROMAN STRIPE
THRIFT BLOCK VARIATION
VARIATION OF SAILBOATS
ENDLESS STAIRS
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THE XQUISITE
