The Bible History Quilt, by Ruby Short McKim, was originally published in newspapers in 1927. The scenes will tell the story in simple outline stitch of twenty-four Bible characters or events. 

One pattern was printed each week, and the reader would carefully cut and save each piece until they had a complete quilt set.  These patterns were highly valued, many of them surviving for collectors and quilt historians of today.

The squares are designed to be transferred onto a 9 inch muslin square.  The blocks in this quilt are titled:

• The Creation
• Father Adam
• Mother Eve
• The Altar of Sacrifice
• The Ark
• The Tower of Babel
• Abraham and Isaac
• The Pillar of Salt
• Rebekah at the Well
• Jacob’s Dream
• Joseph Sold into Egypt
• Moses Adopted by Pharoahs Daughter
• The Rock of Living Water
• The Spies
• The Fall of Jericho
• Gideon and the Fleece
• Sampson and the Lion
• Ruth the Gleaner
• Samuel and Saul
• David and Jonathan
• David and Goliath
• Solomon and the Two Mothers
• Elijah and the Ravens’
• Daniel and the Lions Den

As other newspaper patterns of the day, the instructions included are minimal - there are no color suggestions as the quilt was generally completed in redwork or bluework.  Each block does include a title and explanation of the scene.

Here is a quilt done in redwork embroidery. Redwork became a popular form of hand embroidery in the 1880's and lasted until the 1930's.   Redwork is a design embroidered using outline-stitch, typically done in turkey red.  (Turkey red is a deep rich shade close to DMC #304.)  Red was preferred since this was one color that did not bleed, they used a different dye process than we do today.  Redwork embroidery was frequently used to introduce young girls to embroidery work. Other colors were also used, mainly blue, black and yellow.

Here is a quilt square done in the same fashion, using white thread on yellow cotton fabric:

Here is a square, done in colored embroidery with tinted squares (coloring or paint can be used):