Animal Week: Day Two

More birds today. Let's see some vintage quilt patterns from the 1930s. This first small quilt uses the Florida Jay from the pattern set called The Laurel Wreath. I made 5 of these blocks (with different birds in the center) and then pooped out! Those wreaths have 25 leaves to appliqué!

Florida Jay 12" block

 Here's a digital rendition of the Laurel Wreath quilt. Birds and Flowers are featured inside those amazing wreaths. Yes, I drew every single one of those birds and leaves and flowers about 20 years ago. They are from 1931 and were designed by Nancy Page for the Kansas City Star.

The Laurel Wreath quilt: 90" x 104" with scalloped borders

Here is a REAL vintage quilt that includes all the blocks. Isn't it gorgeous?!

Laurel Wreath with a Greek column looking border

Here are the other 4 birds I stitched and then put into a quilt. Like I said, after making these I swore off making the blocks with flowers! Blocks are 12" x 12". My pattern for this also includes the Garden Maze sashings.

Four block Laurel Wreath quilt: 45" x 45"

And who are these birds?

• Top left: Cedar Waxwing
• Top right: Oven Bird
• Bottom Left: Hermit Thrush
• Bottom Right: Hooded Warbler

I patterned this in 2002 and spent dozens of hours redrafting all of the blocks using Adobe Illustrator (no scans). I retyped all the text, too! You can find my 66 page Laurel Wreath digital quilt pattern in my Etsy shop. I used to sell it bundled on a CD (and still have some copies here), but so many folks no longer have a CD drive, right?