Tessellations: Hexagon 7---Repeated Star Shapes

Another variation of BlockBase #160---

repeating stars.

Mid-19th century quilt.

I don't think I've ever seen a name published before 1970 for this shading pattern of stars,

Sometimes alternated with rosettes.

Marina Jones Gregg 1852

Charleston Museum of Art

http://charlestonmuseum.tumblr.com/post/3582243226

The museum calls this one Stars and Diamonds.

Elizabeth Docton Perry

Charleston Museum of Art

The pattern seems to be a Carolina regional favorite.  

Deborah Tritt and Laurel Horton examine a pair of South Carolina hexagon stars.

Both by Marina Jones Gregg?

See an article about this pair of twins (the quilts---not the quilt historians)

in the Aiken Standard here:

http://www.aikenstandard.com/article/20150728/AIK0401/150729499

Hexagon Star by Keturah McElroy from the Kentucky Historical Society

They were fond of hexagons in Kentucky too.

The vivid color in some of these striking antiques is due to the wool and silk combination fabrics that take dyes differently from cotton.

Although the one below is cotton---Turkey red and green.

From Mary Kerr's hexagon collection

By Mrs. Cruse of Hastings, Nebraska

Collection Hastings Museum

http://www.nebraskahistory.org/exhibits/depression_quilts/patterns_kits.htm

A few more cotton examples:

By Hannah Wallis Miller

The D.A.R. Mueum has one that's a variation of Diamond Field.

The red dot focuses your eye on the star shape.

See an all-over shot at the Quilt Index:

http://www.quiltindex.org/basicdisplay.php?pbd=DARMuseum-a0a1b7-a

It's very much like an unfinished top that Presidential daughter Maria Hester Monroe

started

By Maria Hester Monroe Gouverneur,

collection of the James Monroe Museum in Fredericksburg, Virginia

but never finished.

Diamonds are Forever

Carol Mahoney, Auckland NZ, 2008

http://www.aqg.org.nz/portfolio/calico-christmas-2008/#jp-carousel-276

If you shade carefully you get a real 3-D appearance,

a combination of tumbling blocks and diamond field. 

But I couldn't find any antique examples that were successful at that illusion.

Below: Contemporary versions.

 ThreadBenders Quilts

http://threadbendersquilts.com/?p=1234

Libby at Plain and Simple Quilts

http://simplylibby.blogspot.com/2012/01/h-is-for-h-exagons.html

Mrs. Baldwin's Star

48" x 48"

2010

Joan Leahy Blanchard was inspired by another antique star at the Charleston Museum to do her 2010 AQSG Star Study quilt. Read more here:

http://www.americanquiltstudygroup.org/qs_star_study21.asp

The original:

http://www.charlestonmuseum.org/research/collection/?person=Baldwin,%20Martha