The City Streets Quilt Block

When I first heard about this blog hop, all I could think of was the Randy Newman theme song for Monk “It’s a Jungle Out There”. I wanted to make some sort of urban block, so I looked through my collection of old blocks for inspiration. I came up with City Streets by Nancy Page. Be sure to see the blocks presented by the other designers at the bottom of this page. They might have a more traditional view of a jungle.

City Streets by Nancy Page — Graphic from the 1980 edition of **Maggie Malone’s 5,500 Quilt Block Designs**

Nancy Page was the pen name of Florence LaGanke Harris. She wrote a syndicated quilt pattern column that appeared in various newspapers during the 1930’s. She was a well known home economist that promoted a number of different home crafts in her columns, such as cooking and needlework.

In 1932, she began a series called the Nancy Page Tuesday Quilt Club. This was a series of designs for quilts. These patterns continued into the early 1940’s, but stopped during the paper shortage of WWII. When the war ended, she did not resume her column. She would have been about 60 or so. Perhaps she retired.

The City Streets block is typically described as a geometric design that resembles an aerial view of city blocks or a street grid. There is a variation of it that becomes a churn dash when set side-by-side but the original version looks more like courthouse steps.

City Streets Quilt Block — Remember, half your blocks will have green centers and the other half will have red centers

Country Gardens Quilt Block — This one is easier to make as the four corners are identical. Just put it together with a sashing and a cornerstone.

Fabric Requirements for a 14″ City Gardens Block

(1) 2-1/2″ Pink center
(4) 2-1/2″ Green squares for the garden
(4) 2-1/2″ White squares and
(4) 2-1/2″ x 4-1/2″ White rectangles for the wall
(4) 2-1/2″ x 4-1/2″ Purple rectangles and
(4) 2-1/2″ x 6-1/2″ Purple rectangles for the walkway
(4) 2-1/2″ x 6-1/2″ Purple rectangles for the sky

Here are Some Ideas

Garden Streets Mini — Here is a 42″ square mini quilt made with 4 blocks.
Learn more about **Piecing a Block on Point here.**

City Streets Table Runner — This 30″ by 58″ Table Runner uses 8 blocks

Which one will you make?

Other Designers

Monday August 19

Tuesday August 20

Wednesday August 21

Thursday August 22

11 thoughts on “It’s A Jungle Out There Blog Hop”

Well, that is certainly a different take on the Jungle theme, but it sure is a jungle with the traffic in the big cities for sure. It is a great looking modern quilt.

How clever of you to make a block representing the concrete jungle!

I love Monk’s theme song! This is a great block tutorial…thanks!

SO impressive! I love that you designed your own block and then showed us variations. This is fabulous and so creative!!

This is so cool to interpret the jungle in this urban way! I will do whatever possible to avoid driving, walking, sleeping, breathing in a large urban city. Avoiding that jungle is what makes me appreciate the mid-size rural community I live in. Thanks for the great block and the modern look!