Old is New Again

The block known as 54-40 or Fight has always been interesting to me.  Such an odd name!  Those triangle star points!  The corners can be HST's, or 4 patches, or even plain squares.  I got a triangle ruler a few months ago, and it has opened up blocks that before I used to cut with paper patterns, slowly accidentally slicing off bits and pieces of my template as I cut.

The slogan 54-40 or fight was from a mid 1850's dispute between  Britain and the US over territories in what is now Oregon.  One of the boundaries was the parallel on the map with the coordinates 54,40.  The slogan was also used by James  Polk, democrat, in his successful bid for the presidency.

At that time, women were denied the vote, but would often express their political views in their "Women's Work," such as quilting.  So to me, the thing I like about the block is it's association with women being politically active at a time they were denied that right.

The fabric collection I used to make my small quilt came from a reproduction set of 6 fabrics (and I added a few from the scrap box) named "Old is New Again," since we may tend to think pink and black is a modern color combination.  This collection was put together from reproduction fabrics of fabrics popular together in the 1840's. 

Though they appear to mirror one another, in reality all the blocks have a dark center.  There are also a few blocks where I had to piece some pinks together to finish the block since I accidentally made one too many black-pointed star when I really needed one more PINK pointed star!  Love it when I end up making these little mistakes.  Reminds me of myself! 

UPDATE: This quilt found a living home with Romana Uher in 2015.