Basted Applique Blocks

This wonderful basted antique applique block was

sold at our last guild quilt show.

The Turkey red and green calico is all ready to applique,

heavily basted in place. It looks like a variation of Poinsettia

or Coxcombs & Currants, popular in the mid-19th century.

Here's another block in the same state, not as well-basted though.

You let those projects sit around for 150 years and you are

going to have to do a little clean-up work.

I have several of these basted blocks

Which makes me wonder about their purpose.

From an online auction

Were they just unfinished projects or were they pattern blocks, unfinished just to keep a record of the pattern?

Another possibility is a two-person project. One stitcher with more skills than the other designed, cut and basted the block. The other did the applique stitching. Handing a child a basted block was a good way to teach a sewing technique. As Abby May Hemenway wrote in 1891 of the olden days: "The odd bits and ends of calico dresses were cut and basted for bed-quilt blocks by the mother and given to Miss to sew."

Unfinished block signed Mary Swain, Ohio

from the Collection of Minneapolis's MIA.

I learned about a trend--an avalanche of basted blocks---from missionary societies who sent them to sewing teachers working with freedpeople in the South. In 1883 Nancy Marsh of Providence, Rhode Island published suggestions for women who wanted to help the schools.

"Women in Stoneham, Massachusetts basted 1,465 blocks of patch-work... for teachers in Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and Ladies Island [South Carolina].

Teacher and students, late 19th century

A Middleboro, Massachusetts woman wrote:

 "As I am an invalid, and unable to give money, I thought I could cut and baste patch-work if nothing more.... 

"A lady in Chesterfield, Illinois [and] friends have basted 300 blocks of patch-work for teachers in Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee....One old lady, who is much interested in the young, and fond of patch-work, gave us 78 blocks very nicely basted, which were sent to Ladies Island, so meeting the needs of a young girl whose quilt had come to a standstill for want of materials."

The blocks were appreciated. Right after the Civil War M. Webster, teaching in Petersburg, Virginia wrote "In my box from home I received enough patchwork to supply my sewing class for a few weeks."

The students were both children and adults who needed to learn the basics of sewing. I assume that the blocks in the Home Missionary boxes were what we'd call appliqued and what they might have called patched or patchwork. Pre-basting pieced blocks does not make any sense.

Basted block in the collection of the Maryland Historical Society

Another possibility explaining pre-basted applique blocks is that one skilled stitcher sold them to another woman to finish---a kit. We know that seamstresses in Baltimore bought prepared blocks in the glory days of the Baltimore Album quilts from about 1845-1855. 

20th-century kit for embroidered and appliqued quilt block

with the pink flowers basted down.

This mode of professional quiltmaking continues today. Many of my friends in the pattern and fabric business baste blocks for paid stitchers to finish. Each person in the collaboration has a set of skills. 

I chose the fabrics, cut and glue-basted the block I designed for my Prairie Flower

quilt and Jean Stanclift machine-appliqued it in excellent fashion.

In the first half of the 20th century a group of Indiana women headed by designer Marie Webster offered basted quilt blocks for sale. 

Their Practical Patchwork company offered a block of Webster designs basted for $2.00. Ida Lilliard and Evangeline Beshore published this catalog offering patterns, stamped blocks, basted blocks and whole finished quilts.

Cluster of Roses, Marie Webster design, Karen Alexander's collection

$2 for a basted block was a lot of money before World War II and only a certain class of seamstresses could afford to pay that, but if I had an extra $2 back then I'd have bought pre-basted Marie Webster blocks.

You could buy the whole top basted for $30!

No prep work. Just sew.