I found an applique pattern that I desperately love! With one small problem. Although I can find many many cases of this pattern having been made. I can not find the pattern anywhere. I fell in love with the traditional Progress Quilt pattern #1492 for the Tree of Life, but it would take some research to discover that is what it is, and even more research to find out why I can’t find it for sale anywhere- despite a multitude of examples of the lovely quilt online.
I have tracked down quite a lot of information on the pattern (not to mention started a whole section of this site dedicated to Days Gone By ads and articles on quilting), but I have had no luck in actually locating this pattern. In fact – I could not even locate the company that made the pattern for hours, and I am not exactly unskilled at online research.
Through a search on… well, every search engine I could think to use (Google, Yahoo, Ask, Bing, Answers, Wikipedia, and several more), I found my way to a discussion on QuiltHistory.com where I got on the right track for what company I was looking for:
Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2003
Thanks to Shirley, below, my problem is solved. I appreciate the other emails of offers too.
Judi
Shirley wrote:
>Judi: I think you meant to say Progress Tree of Life instead of Paragon? The Paragon Company had a Tree of Life, also, but it is cross-stitch. Anyhow, I have color picture of the appliqué kit that was advertised in Herrschner’s and LeeWards. The number is 1492. Oh and by the way, to keep things confusing, the Paragon Company had the same kit numbered 1369.
>Want me to color copy the pics and send them on? I can enlarge the photos, too, so you probably can get a good idea of the placement.
>Shirley Mc
Still. It was impossible to locate the Progress Patten Company. Well, I take that back. I did find some information on the Progress Pattern Company, in which they are on the defending end of an unpaid overtime lawsuit in the mid 50′s.
I know from Antique Quilt Dating Guides that Progress was still making eagle quilts in the 1970′s, since one is listed on the Eagle Quilt Kits page as having been seen in Herrschners Spring 1976 catalog.
Period: 1901-1929
Doing some research on The Quilt Index, the earliest verified quilt I can locate is one made in Pennsylvania circa 1901-1929 made using a “Commercial/Published source: Kit” described as “tree of life kit quilt with tan scalloped binding“. While this is not an exact match to the patterns of the other quilts I found, there can (at least from my examination) no doubt that the quilt is an early version of the same quilt kit or perhaps a version someone simplified themselves.
The earliest exact version of the pattern in question which I can locate at the Quilt Index site is a Tree of Life applique quilt circa 1940 that is listed as having been made from a kit by Maria Poholsky (1876-1954).
Circa 1940
Presuming Progress included a copyright mark on their pattern when they published it, which I have not found any evidence of in the few online copies of the pattern kit I have located, then if the pattern dates to pre-1940 it would be within the public domain now (1940+67 years copyright term = 2007). Under the 1909 Act, works that were published without a copyright notice before 1-1-78 entered the public domain upon publication.
One example of the packaging can be seen at Hall’s Harbour Quilt, I found another, much better, example at eBay on an expired auction and saved the images to my personal image collection for this quilt pattern.
So, now, feeling reasonably certain the pattern is within the public domain, and being unable to find a copy of it I can purchase, I have reverse engineered one of the many patterns into a slightly squished more squared pattern suitable for use on a lap quilt I want to make.
I created the above flipbook with the sheets I made to print to create a full scale printout for the Tree of Life applique. Note that this is not the pattern for the full scale Tree of Life pattern, this is a squished version that I created using a picture found online. More of a Bush of Life, and made to be used on a lap quilt or wall hanging. Click the screen icon on lower left to make the book full screen size. You can print pages from the flip book, but you will need Adobe Flash to view it, and I would love to see any quilts created with the assistance of this pattern.
I’ll be working to get an actual version of the pattern when I am able to, but for now, this is my quick and easy solution to my need for a workable full scale pattern. I’m working on a tutorial for how to use the pattern and will load it up as a PDF file when I finish it.
