Modern Star
Star of Many Points
(Cabot) |
 Modern Star
Star of Many Points/David & Goliath/Doe & Darts/Four Darts
First published in a Grandma Dexter booklet (#36A) around 1931, Modern Star had a large offset square in the center and four chevron darts made from scrap prints.
We haven't seen instructions for this block on the Web. Our "Make It!" icon
links to a page with our diagrams for both these blocks. Lest you wonder, they're based on a 5x5 grid.
Star of Many Points
David & Goliath/Doe & Darts/Four Darts
Nancy Cabot published a variation of Modern Star in 1936 with a different color scheme and gave it many of the same names as Finley's Doe & Darts:
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Click on the icon for more on Finley's Doe & Darts block. |
| Doe & Darts (Finley) |
What's different? Cabot's Star of Many Points alternates two colors for every piece not in the background color. Cabot dated Star of Many Points to 1782. She didn't give any sources, but 1782 is nevertheless cited for every Doe & Darts variation in sight.
Note: Cabot presented two blocks called Star of Many Points.
We have yet to post the other. |
Sandhills Star |
Sandhills Star
The Kansas City Star published this block in 1939. The block within the star is a 4-square checkerboard—in quiltspeak, a 4-patch.
The Sandhills (or Sand Hills) is a giant patch of land that early 20th-century homesteaders found too sandy to farm but not too sandy for grazing cattle. The region makes up a quarter of Nebraska, which was home to the KCS reader who sent this block to the newspaper. |
Art Square
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Art Square
Village Square/Dottie's Choice
While the Ladies Art Company published Art Square in 1897 (#324), it was as Village Square that Nancy Cabot introduced this block in a 1937 Chicago Tribune. Farm Journal & Farmer's Wife called it Dottie's Choice in 1945; and finally, Doris Hinson named it Four Square in her 1973 book A Quilter's Companion. |
Fort Sumpter |
Fort Sumpter [sic]
Fort Sumter
The Civil War began at Fort Sumter, but quilt-block designer Nancy Cabot added a "p" when the block was published in the Chicago Tribune in 1937.
We quilters are such good girls that we have preserved that errant "p" in every re-publication of the block for 75 years and counting, with "[sic]" added so nobody thinks it was us who goofed.
Perhaps we should ask the President to proclaim that it's finally okay to spell the name so it matches Civil War history. No less an authority would do. |
Four 4 Time |
Four Four Time
Four Four Time is named for a musical term that spells out the beat in a melody; it means that every fourth beat is a little bit louder than the other three. The block was in Farm Journal and Farmer's Wife around 1941, according to Jinny Beyer's Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns. |
