We are honored to present our first annual Vintage Kansas City Star Block of the Month. This is an exclusive Block of the Month that I put together for the Fat Quarter Shop.
This all came about in a very unique way. I received a phone call in March from the owner of my local knitting shop. She told me someone had come by her shop with a box of 1930s quilt patterns, and she wondered if I would like to have them! I rushed to the shop as soon as I could and simply could not believe my eyes.
There sat a box containing hundreds of vintage quilt patterns from the Kansas City Star newspaper. The shop owner told me a man whose grandmother had recently passed away brought the patterns to her, because he just couldn’t imagine throwing them away and thought she might be able to find a good home for them. I was honestly in awe for days. I kept thinking about the man’s grandmother, and how she must have spent hours and hours saving these special patterns. I decided to create a block of the month quilt in her honor.
First, I selected 12 of my favorite blocks, which would finish at 12”. Next, I chose the Cattails & Clover collection by Kansas Troubles Quilters and started sewing! This resulted in 12 wonderful blocks, perfect for any intermediate to advanced quilter.
Each of our patterns includes the name of the pattern, author of the pattern, date the pattern was first published and a small excerpt from the newspaper. The blocks are all pieced (no templates, applique or paper piecing).
This new Block of the Month begins in November 2011 and I would love for you to join us for this program!
6 comments
I can't wait for this to start! Thank you for putting this project together! It's gorgeous!
It really is beautiful! Should be a fun project to do.
amazing – my mother in law just gave me an envelope stuffed full of old kc star quilt patterns! they belonged to my husband's grandmother. i am so happy to see you doing something awesome with these!
What a great story! I lived in Kansas City for 30 years before I realized the role the Star had played in providing quilting patterns (I just recently started quilting). It is terrific seeing these great patterns being put in to use and I also love that you are honoring the original "gatherer" of the patterns you received! Here's to quilting collectors!
I found a box of KC Star patterns at an auction probably 10 years ago mixed in with a bunch of odds and ends. Even though I wasn't quilting then, I certainly wasn't going to let anyone else buy them! I have maybe 30 or so patterns on the original newsprint and a few that had the templates that someone had copied and used.
Oh my! I think you have the original ruby mckim patterns. They were later made into a book and her family now has a website in her memory. You should check out which are hers! This is an amazing vintage find!!
Check out mckimmstudios.com