Tiny Octagons, Miniature Scale 19th Century Paper Pieced Quilt-work turned wood horsehair brush making the most satisfying sound

making the most satisfying sound

1 1/4" across at opening

and I have to guess it was part of a stove (there is a sort of hook at bottom center of the back side that perhaps latched to the stove and this piece opened out to allow for emptying ashes

blue trees against yellow sky and green and pink rolling hills

Tiny Octagons, Miniature Scale 19th Century Paper Pieced Quilt-work turned wood horsehair brush making the most satisfying soundTo my eye an exquisite little thing a fragment of a larger quilt, perhaps, or perhaps its maker had had enough! The method of making here was is called English paper piecing with each shape cut from a paper template, then wrapped with fabric, yielding a perfect, sharp cornered octagon. (Much more common were hexagon quilts, typically arranged in honeycomb patterns; here, because of the octagons, and their linear arrangement, the maker interspersed