Shoo Fly on point

The quilt's story is its block's: read about Shoo Fly.

Setting blocks on point is as old as the block quilt. The museum in Lincoln writes that the earliest American block quilts often have pieced blocks alternating with plain ones, set on point, like a Square in a Square from Berks County in Pennsylvania from about 1810–1830. In the British frame quilts squares stand on point inside the frames, as in the Billings coverlet from about 1805–1810.

Barbara Brackman shows a quilt from Juniata County in Pennsylvania of 1848 with 32 blocks on point round an appliquéd centre and half and quarter blocks along the edge, and she writes that the setting is often seen in the middle of the 1800s.

The sides are filled with large triangles and the corners with small ones. QuiltCrafter cuts the sides as quarter-square triangles and the corners as half-square ones, so the quilt's edge is on the straight grain and does not stretch. With plain blocks between, as in Ohio stars on point, the blocks seem to float.

With sashing on point the strips zigzag round each block; in QuiltCrafter that setting is called Waterfall. We have not found the name in historical sources.