Herbarium Block-of-the-Month 2023-4 Introduction

Time to think about the next applique BOM here at CivilWarQuilts.

Herbarium

The quilt on the poster here is one of 8 samplers I've found with similar patterns. This mid-19th-century

example in the collection of the Shelburne Museum has plant names on many of the blocks.

Our applique sampler Herbarium  for the next 12 months draws from a group of quilts with similar blocks based on plants' natural appearance rather than the stylized roses in formal repeats that we usually see.

New York Project & the Quilt Index

Not as graceful as the Shelburne's botanical sampler,

this quilt attributed to Florence Strutz of New York

has both botanical imagery and formal wreaths.

We'll do some of both over the year.

Our history lessons will be about the importance of "botanizing" and herbariums in the science education of the mid-19th century American schoolgirl. Each block recalls a teacher, a botanist or a collector who organized her specimens into a book, a Herbarium (an Herbarium---if you don't pronounce the H.)

Children ready for a day of nature studies. He 

has a net for catching insects and over his shoulder a

vasculum, a container for carrying specimens, flora & fauna. 

She has a basket to hold her botanical finds.

Botanist Rachel Littler Bodley with her herbariums,

collection boxes and her published book on plants.

See more about Rachel's unusual patchwork skirt at this post:

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2015/02/rachel-littler-bodley-and-patchwork.html

Blocks will finish to 15"

Fabric requirements:

You may want to do this in traditional reds and greens on white.

Becky Brown is using hand-dyed cottons from Vicki Welsh's  Colorways

https://www.colorwaysbyvicki.com/#/

Denniele Bohannon---red & green prints on a background of black & white text

Becky Collis's choices---

Solids and a print with many possibilities.

Me, the red & green scrap box for the applique on four-patch

backgrounds of black and white geometrics.

Although Phoebe likes a mess she is concerned that my sampler will be too busy. 

I assure her I am going to pull it together.

How much fabric?
For 12 blocks (and borders or extra blocks) the applique---
Minimum of 4 fabrics: 2 reds/2 greens 1 yard each.

Background.
Varied backgrounds

15" blocks will fit nicely in a fat quarter.

A single, unified background
3 yards for the blocks---2 squares across the width. You'll have a leftover strip along the side.
No matter how much yardage of one fabric I buy it is NEVER enough.
Five yards should do it for borders and setting!

That's one reason I use the pieced, variegated backgrounds of 4 patches or 9 patches.
One can always run out to get another half a yard.

First block on the last Wednesday of March, March 29, 2023.

If you would like to buy the pattern package for $12 to print yourself see it here at my Etsy shop:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1420573283/herbarium-12-applique-blocks-in-a-civil?

And do check in at our Facebook group HerbariumQuilt. It's public so you don't have to join. Post your pictures.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1956642391352208

See a discussion of the antique Herbarium samplers here---back when I'd found only 6 examples.

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2018/07/botanizing-5-six-similar-samplers.html