I guess I have to practice my alphabets more often. I almost missed this little fellow entirely! I was already onto the M block before I realized that I’d left Jack behind. Here is the Jack in the box quilt block pattern, right on time. Enjoy!
Block #10 ~ The Jack-in-the-Box
The surprised expression on Jack’s face as he popped out of his box was mirrored on the faces of the quilt club members when they saw the pattern for the tenth block in the alphabet quilt.
They began to tell the stories of the Jack’s they had had in childhood. One member recalled other toys with springs with which she had played. There was the reptile concealed in the simulated pot of jam. This snake uncoiled itself with frightened suddenness when the top of the jam pot was lifted.
This particular Jack was not difficult to applique since the spring and the face were expressed in stitchery. But the rest of the toy was done in applique.
The first step was the cutting of the square from the newspaper. A square of soft white gingham was cut with an allowance of one-quarter inch on all sides. This was laid over the newspaper pattern.
Then the two were held flat against the window pane. With a sharp, hard lead pencil the pattern and letter were outlined.
Then the paper pattern was paste onto a piece of light weigh cardboard or tag board and dried under pressure.
Nancy took her green embroidery cotton which she used for outlining the letters in the upper left hand corner and worked in the letter “J” with fine outline stitch. Some of the members used a fine chain stitch to give more weight to the letter.
While she was waiting for the pattern to dry she chose her other embroidery cottons. She was sure to use only fast color, washable ones. For the hair she chose, yellow, for the mouth, rose. And for the eyes she used brown. The same brown was used to make the spring.
Now the pattern was dry she cut it, having the round pattern for the head, the two long pieces for arms.
The box was cut all one piece. Where the arm extended over the edge she acted as if it was not there and did not cut the indentation left by its overlapping.
In cutting all the pieces she allowed one-quarter inch on all sides for turning under. She cut the face from pale pink, fast color soft gingham. The arms were from a figured green print. The box was a pink and white material with pink dots sprinkled over its surface.
After the edges were turned under and basted down, the pieces were pressed.
She laid the box in place on the lead pencil outline of the white block. The box was appliqued with fine, slanting invisible hemming stitches. Then she appliqued the arms. The head went on last.
To get the effect of the box she used her brown fast color embroidery cotton and outlined the lines of the box as shown. It was the line on the front toward the right and the hinge line which needed to be stitched. The spiral spring was done in fine running stitch.
The eyes were outlined and the pupils worked in fine satin stitch. The mouth was done in satin stitch. The eyebrows were one in running stitch. The hair was done in double strands of brown.
“Nancy Page Quilt Club – Alphabet Quilt – Block #10 – Jack in the box” Newspapers.com, Edmonton Journal, December 28, 1929, https://www.newspapers.com/article/edmonton-journal-nancy-page-quilt-club/81120253/
If you’d like to buy all of the alphabet quilt blocks as a block-of-the-month-club, you can do that here. This is NOT an affiliate link.
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