Ann Champion's Blog

Today the quilt top I’m pulling from the quilt top cupboard is a Flyfoot pattern. The top is hand pieced, and dates to the 1930’s. The blocks are 9″ finished.  It also goes by many other names including:

Battle Ax of Thor, Catch Me If You Can, Chinese 10,000 Perfections, Devil’s Dark Horse, Devil’s Puzzle, Favorite of the Peruvians, Heart’s Seal, Indian Emblem, Mound Builders, Spider, Virginia Reel, Wind Power of the Osages, Winding Blades, Whirligig, Zig Zag, and of course the one that may be most familiar to you, the Swastica.

You may be wondering why there are so many names for this pattern?  It’s because it’s a very old symbol which has been used by many cultures throughout time.  It has even been found on stone age rock carvings.

The symbol has been used throughout history by the Greek, the Celts, and Scandinavian people, The Basque people, the Mayans of Mexico, Navajo Native Americans, by early Christians, and  by the Hindu and people of India, and of course the more well known symbol of the German Nazi party.

The symbol has been used to represent well being, fertility, good fortune, Thor, Christ, good luck, and as a symbol in music meaning “repeat”.  You can find a lot more info about this symbol and it’s history, along with photos of quilts with the symbol on Patricia and James Cummings blog, Quilter’s Muse.

It’s a cheerful pattern in my opinion with a look of movement to it?  It’s such a shame that the symbol was adopted and used by the Nazi’s and that is what the symbol is so often thought of to represent?

There’s also another blog Svasticross, that’s devoted to the symbol in architecture and the arts and posts pics found throughout the World.

Here I show some of the cheerful 1930’s fabrics used in the top.

I have a couple more tops in my collection too. Because of the negative associated with the pattern most people don’t want them or use them if they come down through the family.

I have a butter crock I got at a tag sale several years ago.  I paid 25¢ for it, and got it for it’s novelty.

It’s a little difficult to see, but the crock has the symbol along the upper and lower edges in the light blue band,  and on either side of the word Butter. It has a symbol in the center of the lid as well.

This crock predates the 1940’s when the symbol was adopted by the Germans.

Just a little note:  I took a couple of pics of the quilting on the Amish style quilt under the crock for Jovita, who asked for them in the comment section.  I hope to get a full view pic of the quilt and hopefully, will post all of the pics next week since there’s some interest in it.