Tonganoxie Split

It's been a while since writing anything here. I've been busy at home, working on a new quilt pattern, trying to stay organized in life and failing. But it'll be ok. Probably. Hopefully?

This weekend I released my newest quilt pattern, Tonganoxie Split. This quilt pattern is inspired by two original blocks designed by Carrie Hall. I've mentored Carrie Hall before, but didn't go into detail about her background. Hall was inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame in 1985. She moved to my hometown, Leavenworth, KS, when she was 23. Over the years she grew many different businesses, did some gambling(!), and produced a collection of some 800 different quilt blocks while lecturing about quilting and its rich history. In 1935, Hall coauthored "The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America" with Emporia quilter Rose Kretsinger. You can read an article about Hall from the Quilters Hall of Fame here.

In 1938, Carrie Hall donated all the blocks she made for her demonstrations, lectures and book to the art museum at The University of Kansas (now known as the Spencer Museum of Art). And that is where I have grown to know and love her. Below are two of her original blocks archived at the Spencer, each named for towns in Leavenworth County. The pink block is the Leavenworth Nine-Patch and was created using square pieces. The second block is the Tonganoxie Nine-Patch and was made using squares and a couple rectangles. I took her designs and updated each with less pieces and with instructions to create blocks easily, precisely and quickly.

After updating the two blocks, I decided to arrange them in a checkerboard pattern and name the result the Tonganoxie Split. The Tonganoxie Split is what locals call a weather phenomenon that causes storms headed northeast to divert around Tonganoxie so that those storms often miss Leavenworth or hit is less severely. At least that's been my experience!

Here is the Tonganoxie Split photographed in Leavenworth at our Riverfront Community Center. The Riverfront used to be our train depot but was renovated when I was a kid. I bet Hall used the depot when traveling to give quilt talks in our region.

I hope you enjoy this pattern and its connections to local history. You can purchase digital patterns of the Tonganoxie Split and others from my store here.

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