[Illustration: Fig. 259. COLONIAL PATCHWORK WITH FIGURES RESEMBLING
SWASTIKAS. Scribner's Magazine, September, 1894.]
In Scribner's Magazine for September, 1894, under the title of "Tapestry
in the New World," one of our popular writers has described, with many
illustrations, the bedquilt patterns of our grandmothers' time. One of
these she interprets as the Swastika. This is, however, believed to be
forced. The pattern in question is made of patches in the form of
rhomboids and right-angled triangles sewed and grouped somewhat in the
form of the Swastika (fig. 259). It is an invented combination of
patchwork which formed a new pattern, and while it bears a slight
resemblance to the Swastika, lacks its essential elements. It was not a
symbol, and represents no idea beyond that of a pretty pattern. It stood
for nothing sacred, nor for benediction, blessing, nor good luck. It was
but an ornamental pattern which fortuitously had the resemblance of
Swastika. It was not even in the form of a cross. The difference between
it and the Swastika is about the same there would be between the idle and
thoughtless boy who sporadically draws the cross on his slate, meaning
nothing by it, or at most only to make an ornament, and the devout
Christian who makes the same sign on entering the church, or the Indian
who thus represents the four winds of heaven. He who made the Swastika
recognizes an occult power for good and against evil, and he thereby
invokes the power to secure prosperity. She who made the quilt pattern
apparently knew nothing of the old-time Swastika, and was not endeavoring
to reproduce it or anything like it. She only sought to make such an
arrangement of rhomboidal and triangular quilt patches as would produce a
new ornamental pattern.