Cascadia Block of the Month October 2025
“The road to California” Block history and tutorial
For this first month’s block of the month blog post I chose one called the “The road to California. In Barbara Brackman’s “Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns” If you chose to participate and make this block please email me your completed block and I will share it on the website. This is and opportunity to WIN FREE FABRIC!!
Here is my finished block. Please make one and email me yours to studio@cascadiatextile.com Block submissions will be posted on the website and all submissions for this month will WIN FREE FABRIC!!
I chose two Liberty of London Tana Lawn fabrics from the store and a lighter background that I had in my stash.
Cut the following:
3 6’ squares of a dark fabric
3 4.5” squares of medium fabric
4 5” squares of background fabric
1 center square 3.5” square (this is a great place to use a fussy cut
First we need to make our flying geese.
Stack smaller square on larger square centered and right sides together. Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner and pin both sides.
A mechanical pencil is a great tool for marking fabric.
Sew 1/4” from the marked line on both sides
Cut on the drawn pencil line.
Press open.
Next stack two of your open squares on top of each other right sides together. Then draw another diagonal line and pin on both sides.
*The seams will not match up (they shouldn’t ) - as we will be trimming our geese later.
Again, sew on both sides of the pencil line at 1/4”.
After sewing the second round of seams, cut again on your pencil line and press open you will now have what will become 12 geese after they are trimmed in the next step.
Now you will trim your geese. It helps to have a flying geese ruler. I am using a Bloc Loc 1.5 × 3. They are a little expensive but a great tool to have. https://blocloc.com/product/flying-geese-ruler-1-1-2-x-3
Once all 12 of your geese are trimmed up your block should look like this. Now we just need to sew the components together.
Sew the geese first.
Then sew the top middle and bottom rows together.
Sew the rows of the last two seams to finish the block.
I did some digging and found that it was block 234 form the Ladies Art Company. Blocks 1-272 were published by 1895. So this block dates to between 1889 and 1895.
Here is this history of the Ladies Art Company:
In 1855 a steamboat docked in St. Louis on the Mississippi River and the Brockstedt (originally spelled Brauscheidt) family of three disembarked for their new life in Missouri. John Henry (Heinrich), his wife Ulrika Christina and his son Henry Marcus (H.M.) settled down at 433 Market Street near the riverfront, where J.H. ran a grocery store and the family lived above it.
In 1873, at the age of 23, Henry’s first job was as a printer with the St. Louis Dispatch Co. He married Emma Mildred Zimmer in June 1885. Emma brought a dry goods store to the marriage; perhaps that is how Henry got involved in operating a mercantile store as well as printing books.
All documentation found so far points to the fact that the Ladies Art Company was established in 1889. Magazines ads in 1895 mentioned 272 quilt blocks to choose from and a catalog was published in 1897 listing 400 different blocks. The rest is history! Ladies Art Co. was the first business to offer hundreds of quilt patterns in a mail order catalog. While their patterns predate the Kansas City Star patterns and others published in newspapers and books, a large majority of blocks were published in the 1880s through the 1890s.
I hope you enjoy making The Ladies Art Company Road to California Block #234. If you make this block, please send a picture and I will share it on the website. You will WIN FREE FABRIC if you send me an email to studio@cascadiatextile.com with your finished block.
Happy Sunday and happy sewing,
Kim