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 Jack-in-the-Pulpit ***

Jack-in-the-Pulpit is a forest flower that reminded settlers of the balcony-like platform that high-church clergy used. The pulpit had stairs and, sometimes, a canopy overhead. See our photos below.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Mosaic, No. 7

Double Squares

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Mrs. Cleve-land's Choice



Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Jack-in-the-Pulpit
Kansas City Star
1933
From the Kansas City Star, 1933, this block is drawn up on a 16 by 16-square grid. The Star also published a near-identical block in two colors in 1944.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit in three colors




Jack-in-the-Pulpit
You can see the "preacher" under his canopy.

By Jason Hollinger
(Jack-in-the-Pulpit Uploaded by Amada44)
[CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The size of this pulpit's canopy indicates its
function: to amplify the minister's voice. This one is in the Blenduk Church in Indonesia, built in 1753. By Crisco 1492 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Mosaic, No. 7

Mosaic, No. 7
Ladies Art Co., #335
1897
Mosaic No. 2/Jack in the Pulpit/Toad in the Puddle

Carrie Hall is the one who called this block Jack in the Pulpit, with the alternative name Toad in a Puddle. That was in 1935.

The Ladies Art Company was the first to publish the block, however, in its 1897 catalog. The block was #335, Mosaic, No. 7.

Nancy Cabot included the same block as Mosaic No. 2 in the Chicago Tribune in 1934. It is drawn on an 8x8 grid.
Jack-in-the-Pulpit in three colors

Double Squares

Double Squares
LAC #225
1897

Double Square

This block is as likely to be called Jack in the Pulpit as it is Double Squares. It is the Ladies Art Company block #225 (1897) and is drawn on a 20-square by 20-square grid, according to Jinny Beyer's Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns(2009). The second, singular name is Nancy Cabot's (1934).
Double Squares

Jack-in-the-Pulpit



Jack-in-the-Pulpit
Stone
1906

Double Square

This variation of Jack-in-the-Pulpit—the colors are reversed to show the seam lines—is from Clara Stone's 1906 booklet Practical Needlework. Hall published this variation as Double Square in 1935.

The same 12x12 grid was published in several variations of the block, each with different seam locations in the corners of the on-point square—the points that have squares in Stone's variation. Their names included The Dewey, Broken Dish, and Toad in the Puddle. To see them all, refer to Beyer's Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns (2009).
Jack-In-the-Pulpit

Mrs. Cleveland's Choice

Mrs. Cleveland's Choice


County Fair/Square Within Square

This block is an honorary member of the Jack-in-the-Pulpit club.

Frances Folsom was the Princess Diana of her day—young, beautiful, and hugely popular. She is one of only three politicians' wives to be honored with a block name, the others being Dolly Madison and Mrs. [William Jennings] Bryan.

Just 21 when she married 48-year-old Grover Cleveland, Frances had known him all her life as a family friend. He had even bought her first baby carriage. Society eyebrows rose when word spread that he was courting Frances and not Frances' mother.


Frances Cleveland ca. 1886, the year she was married.
Photo: Wikipedia Commons.


Frances gave birth to two daughters between Cleveland's two terms and to a third during his second term, the only First Lady to give birth in the White House.

Cleveland was called "His Obstinancy" for vetoing bill after bill during his first term. With children in the White House, his public image softened into that of a doting father of toddler girls. We imagine that tableau was behind his other popular nickname, "Uncle Jumbo."






Mrs. Cleveland's Choice

Mrs. Cleveland's Choice in four colors


Mrs. Cleveland's wedding gown.
We'd like to think that Princess Diana was honoring Frances Cleveland when she chose a wedding dress with a train. Mrs. Cleveland, however, also wore orange blossoms (inset).
Photo: Historywired.si.edu (Smithsonian Institution) storywired.si.edu )