Each month of this year I will be introducing a new block. You may take this as an opportunity to build your own skills. Additionally, I encourage you to post your block creations either on our ACQ Community Facebook page or on Instagram using #ACQPresidentBlock2021. Each block you post will be entered into a monthly drawing for a fat quarter bundle. If you aren’t on social media – no problem, just send me an email with your photo (pond.jennifer@comcast.net). We will draw the winner at the next guild meeting, and you don’t need to be present to win (although we hope you will because we have a great line-up this year!). The winner of July’s block will be announced at the August meeting, and the August block at the September meeting.

This month’s block is Round Rosie.  Since August is my birth month and Rosie was my first doll I thought it an appropriate selection.

Naturalistic motifs, such as flowers, leaves and vines, have been favorite textile designs for centuries, and American quilts share this tradition. Many of these quilts are appliqued because this method is best suited to the curved shapes of the flowers and vines.  This same theme is possible to create in a pieced quilt. Baskets, with flower designs, were a popular motif among quilt makers from approximately 1850 on, as they could be easily adapted to suit individual tastes, fabrics and color combinations.
The variety of patterns seems almost endless, from baskets with handles to those without, to those with appliqued fruit and flowers added to the pieced basket, to pattern variations including Broken Sugar Bowl, Cake Stand, Flower Pot and May Basket.

A takeoff of the flower basket is Round Rosie, with spring tulips in a circle.  There may be other blocks with similar names but I’m looking for the Round Roise designed by Pam Vieira-McGinnis (pamkittymorning.blogspot.com) and published in Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks from Today’s Top Designers, Vol. 4, p. 66. This block was used in a 2020 BOM sponsored by ABY Quilts. The instructions can be found here.