Rising Star

Maintenance and Project History

History & Provenance

  • Work Credit: unknown
  • Date Made: circa 1940 inferred by fabric
  • Ownership History:
    • David Bailey from December 29, 2022
  • Documented by David Bailey

Overall

Size

  • Length: 75″
  • Width: 66.25″

General Condition Issues

  • Some seams have opened. There is some bleaching (sun) of the fabric and a few smaller stains.
  • This is a quilt top with a binding, but not back or batting.

Top

Fabric Description

  • Cotton – very soft, maybe flannel
  • Solids – red, white and a soft blue

General Organization

  • The basic repeating unit in this grid a hexagon made of 3 diamonds – one red, one white and one blue. This the Tumbling Block (BB ID 142b). The tumbling block hexagon is 3 3/8″ from tip to tip.

    The tumbling blocks are assembled into a setting that forms the Rising Star (BB ID 142d). Here the Rising Star is created from the alternating red and white diamonds to form a six pointed star on a white background. The white diamond background for one star is shared with adjacent stars. The stars are 5 1/4″ from one red tip to one blue tip. The white background for a star is 6 3/4″ from tip to tip.
142b
142d
Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, 3rd ed. Barbara Brackman.

The setting of the Idaho Stars is not consistent in this quilt top. Some stars are rotated by 60 degrees compared to others. A comparison of the settings is provided here.

Consistent Idaho Star Setting
Tumbling Block Setting
  • Sashing: None
  • Borders

    There are 2 borders. The inner border is solid white (2 3/4″) and the outer border is solid blue (4″). Neither are pieced, but strips were created with blunt-end seams, not biased seams.

Other

  • Techniques Used: Patchwork
  • Stitching Methods:
    • Blocks: Hand
    • Top Assembly: Hand
  • Workmanship: Hand-piecing and top assembly is very good.

Edge Treatment

Style

  • The binding is white and may have been applied after the original construction of the top because it was not done by hand – like the rest of the piece. This may have been done to prevent fraying.

    The hand work used to apply the binding to the back of the top is much coarser than the hand work used for piecing seams.
  • Straight edge.
  • Front-to-Back
    • Front applied by machine
    • Back applied by hand
  • Size of binding:
    • Width on Front: 3/8″
    • Width on Back: 3/8″

Appraisal

No

_____