Sweet Butterscotch Quilt

This quilt belongs to a friend of mine.  It's a late 19th century quilt.  I found the block in Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.  It's called New Album, published by Ladies Art Co., pattern #36 (LAC started publishing in the 1890s, and 36 is a fairly low number).

(Note: There is info on finding the book on Brackman's blog.  It's now available as an eBook.  It's an invaluable resource!  It's also available on paper via my favorite used book resource, AbeBooks.  I have no connection to AbeBooks.  So far, I have found their condition notes to be accurate.)

The quilt is a great collection of mid- to late 19th century prints and colors, including a great butterscotch yellow print in the alternate squares. 

That Old Italian Block

Although it sounds more like someone searching their memory for the right words, that truly is the name of this quilt pattern, "Old Italian Block".

The owner of this quilt had been told that the name is Corn and Beans, but it's really not like any of the blocks by that name in Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.  In the Encyclopedia, Brackman documents the Old Italian Block as a Nancy Cabot pattern.  It sometimes was used for signature quilts, with the name signed on the center square.  Why "Italian"?  I don't know.  Maybe it was inspired by a tiled floor that a quilter saw on her trip to Italy...