Indian Canoes quilt block

Indian Canoes

June 10, 1933-Both Indiana and Illinois claim credit for creating the Indian Canoes quilt block according to Nancy Cabot.  Handmade birch bark canoes made by the American Indians were the inspiration for this design.  "The broken square formed by the crossing of the canoes usually was pieced of bright colors by early quilt makers to represent the emblem which the tribal chiefs used on their canoes" she wrote.  The quilt  pattern using the Indian Canoes block sold for "5 cents in stamp or coin."

An antique pattern can be found here.  Image #3 suggests the background be made from a print with the other two pieces being made of two shades of solid fabric.

This block can be found in Electric Quilt's Blockbase program as Crossed Canoes.  You can download templates for a 6" block from Jinny Beyer here.  She has 10" and 12" versions available also.

I made my block by paper piecing it.  I found this great link to the 6" paper pieced patterns at 365 Paper Pieced Quilt Blocks made exactly the way I made my Indian Canoes block shown below-

Check out this scrappy version of an Indian Canoes quilt with sashing here.

Tomorrow-Pieced Butterfly