Surprising Vintage Quilt Blocks...

These wild quilt blocks were among those found in the old cardboard box given to quilting friend Claudia. The block name is Hens & Chickens, also known as Ducks & Duckling or Corn & Beans. Some of the other pieces were shown in previous posts, here and here. I'm always surprised to see fabrics like these in vintage blocks. The colors are so vivid, and the pattern is so bold and electric. It makes me wonder what kind of response viewers had to the use of this fabric. I'll venture to say it was an attention-getter. Even though I have a fabric dating book to help, I'm stumped by what era the lime-green and black print might have been from. Any ideas?To me, the blocks are both puzzling and compelling. And even a little bit hard to look at. Like an old tv test pattern of yesteryear!

But the surprise of this unusual print was compounded when I saw these lively fabrics offered in a recent Connecting Threads catalog. The swatches at left are from Jenni Calo's "Mastermind" collection. The catalog text indicates that they are robot-inspired... buzzing circuit boards and radio waves whizzing through the air. The two colorways of the second print in the third vertical row (and seen again at the bottom of the middle row) really remind me of the vintage print in the above blocks. Radio waves... that clicks, and I could see that being the concept behind the inspiration for the vintage print, too. That print seems to support the adage "everything old is new again"! I just love those old fabrics and quilts.