Month 10 Matilda's Pineapple

Mix of prints and solids

This isn't the setting or layout for the blocks, I just wanted you to see all the blocks together through month 10.

Thank you for joining this journey, if you are stitching or reading along.

Month ten is ready.  Plenty of surprise blocks left.  We tried to bundle the monthly sets with at least one surprise block.

This evening I was speculating how Matilda felt when she saw the quilt completed.

Applique bands on the pineapple block

The three Noah and Matilda blocks for month ten include a potted cactus, a Mexican rose and a pineapple.

In Matilda's colonial America, pineapples were both symbolic (hospitality), as well as a food delicacy.  Having a pineapple on her quilt and home may have been a rarity.  But then, the cactus isn't a common 1850's applique pattern either.

My pineapple applique bands

In the 1850's most entertaining was done in homes.   Creative food displays were popular for formal dinners.  Pineapples are visually attractive in a centerpiece, they were rare and expensive - if available at all in 1850.  The pineapples imported from the Caribbean Islands were candied chunk, glazed and packed in sugar.  An actual whole fruit was even harder to obtain.  They did show up in markets (delivered on the fastest ships) in larges cities like Boston, Philadelphia and Williamsburg.

Perhaps botanical prints were the inspiration for the cactus blocks.  


This print has many similarities to Matilda's blocks.

Matilda's Cactus Flower

This is one of Matilda's yellow flowers - the quilting adds beautiful texture next to the yellow wave print.

You can see the hand piecing of the block seams.

I love her green dot print, but was unable to find one I liked.

My Cactus Flower

This is one of  my yellow flowers.
I got as close as I could to a stripe/wavy print.

I think any medium yellow would work, even a solid.  I chose fabrics in the colors the quilt would have been, not the way it is today - faded.

You can read more about the quilt and the block sets HERE.


I hope you have a great weekend, we are enjoying some fall color here, as well as cooler temperatures - great stitching weather!