North wind (Block #18)

I am at quilt block number 18 now!

Today's block is called North Wind.  For whatever reason the name of this block brings me back to New England, in Massachusetts where my Dad's family is from. My dad is from a very old New England farming family from the Boston area. It has never quite been proven but apparently we are related to the Cooke family that came over on the Mayflower in 1620. I looked up once a list of passengers on the Mayflower and I did indeed find  two people with the last name Francis and John Cooke, father and son.. I  always wondered what ever happened to the wife? Was he a widower? Did she died on the voyage over? Did he ever remarry?  After a little bit of research I found out that he was married to a Hester le Mahieu, a French woman. Who knew French ran through both sides of the family? Francis then later sent for his wife and other children in 1623 after he had  left in Holland after established himself.  The  original destination of the Mayflower was suppose to have been near present day New York City but they got off course and instead landed at Plymouth. Perhaps  it was due to a strong north wind, thus blowing them off course. And then perhaps today's block  North Wind commemorates that event. That is my own speculation, and not based upon fact.

And here's my block of North Wind, a 12 inch block.:

 I chose a brown print and a yellow fabric for this block. The yellow in the picture came out looking a little more yellow than it really is.  The block itself was easy to put together, just  it went together a little different than one would expect. I had a little trouble  with my seams they didn't seem to match up even though I cut my fabric pieces exactly right and my seams were slightly less than 1/4 inch.  So I am not sure what exactly went wrong but I like that over all appearance of this block.

http://quilterscache.com/N/NorthWindBlock.html