Quilt History: Broken Dishes Quilts - A bit of Background

I sometimes dig so deep down a rabbit hole that I think I’ll end up in China. I have always been drawn to old quilt patterns and designs. I love and adore their scrappiness. They keep me enthralled and engaged as I examine every part of them.

It got me thinking about what makes a broken dishes quilt different from a half square triangle quilt. Is there a difference? I also noticed that broken dishes quilts seem to either have a very specific pattern or no pattern at all. Why? What’s that about.

So many questions and so much to dig through.

Firstly, I realized two main things. The first one is that the quilts are assembled in one of two ways. By either making half square triangle blocks or by having your isosceles (right angle) triangles sewn together on their short end. This will make a difference when the blocks are assembled and the colors move differently.

Two types of quilt assembly

Assembled by sewing the triangles together on their long sides. This is the traditional half square triangle.

The traditional light on one side dark on the other.

Assembled by sewing the triangles together by their short sides.

The colors will flow very differently than with half square triangles

Here is where my husband would say, “neat… so… what does that mean… big picture?” Good question, dear. Let’s keep digging.

Susies Scraps blog has a fantastic post about her broken dishes quilt where she uses half square triangles.

On the other side of broken dishes realm, Purl Soho has another great post where she uses the method of sewing the short sides together. Also, I love her diagrams.

The overall design looks the same, right? Just assembled differently. Neither way is better than the other, just different.

Now look what we

have here!

See how there is a definite difference between this one and the two above? It has so much more randomness through it. Assembled with half square triangles, sometimes all the blocks are facing the same direction and sometimes they turn the other direction for a while… it is so much more random. While not as uniform, it is still captivating.

The one over to the right is from the 1870s. Right after the civil war. Beautiful, right? antique fabric has some beautiful vintage textiles.

Broken Dishes quilts can go in a thousand directions, that’s what makes them so fun. With all my digging through the webs of the internet, I haven’t found an antique quilt that uses the second method of assembling the triangles with the second method; the one the same as Purl Soho.

These two “methods” of the quilt assembly really don’t have a difference aside from how the triangles are pieced. The older quilts are so much more randomized while the newer ones are much more methodical in their patterns.

Half Square Triangle vs Broken Dishes Quilts

I have seen a lot of people make half square triangle quilts in recent years and It got me curious - is there a difference?

Short answer: Not really. You do you! It is your quilt and what you say goes!

Long answer: It depends on the overall design.

There are so many quilt designs out there. The possibilities are truly endless when you learn to create. If a quilt is designed in a way that creates an overall design that lacks randomness, in my opinion based on my observances over time, it would be better suited to be called a half square triangle quilt or give the quilt pattern a proper name. Many times if an antique quilt is listed for sale or titled, it is titled as a “Variation” of a broader design. Something like “Broken Dishes Variation” or “Half Square Triangle Variation.” There are so many half square triangle quilts that talented designers have put together through the ages and that hard work, under whatever definition they have for it, should be recognized. If a designer decides to call it a half square triangle quilt or a broken dishes quilt, its six of one, half a dozen the other.

Below are some beautiful half square triangle quilts that I have come across over the ages that are not broken dishes quilts. They have specific design and a specific pattern that creates a wholeness to the design.

Half Square Triangle Quilts From Left to Right: Blue Susan Makes, Piece N Quilt, Suzy Quilts, Carried Away Quilting, Quilts From The Attic 

To me, the charm of a broken dishes quilt is the randomness. Broken dishes quilts are chaotic but have something about them that makes them cohesive. Sometimes I see that the sections are divided into blocks with sashing. Sometimes it is a larger repeated pattern. Consistently however, they are much more scrappy quilts. The half square triangle quilts above have a limited pallet and an overarching pattern. The broken dishes quilts, while have something that usually ties them all together, are a bit more random.

This beautiful Broken Dishes quilt is the one that originally got me thinking about all of this in the first place. Dating back to the 1890s, it is a stunning example of a broken dishes quilt.

One of my favorite things about it is how a majority of the squares are simple random pairs of light and dark. But they are segmented into blocks by the green and yellow. I feel like this gives the quilt structure amongst the chaos.

This Is another fun example - I love how the various colors are all wrangled together by the consistent white side of the half square triangles and the large patterned border.

Broken Dishes Quilts from Left to Right: Dan Auctions, Dan Auctions, The Met, Connecting Threads, Fave Quilts

These quilts are all eye catching, aren’t they? In their unique way, they all draw the eye around the quilt. Whether they create a larger over arching pattern or have a bit of mystery, these quilts keep your eyes moving. So if you decide to have a limited palate and arrange your blocks in an overarching pattern or if you decided to use half your scrap bin and and make things a bit more wild, your quilt will be perfect. Call it a Broken Dishes quilt or come up with something else.

It is your quilt and only you make the decisions.