Arrant Red Birds

Quilt Etc. called today’s block, “Mark Twain,” because the book we’re reading in our first Saturday block-of-the-month class is Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It took me a while, but I eventually found the original name of this rather obscure and complicated quilt block: “Arrant Red Birds.” The last two-thirds of the name make perfect sense to me. The configuration of small and large triangles in each corner are reminiscent of a simpler, more traditional quilt block called, “Birds in the Air.” I’d never run across the word “arrant” before, so I had to look it up. In 1300’s England, the word used to mean “wandering” or “vagrant.” Later it took on more definitions, like “unmitigated” and “notorious.” It occurs to me that these are all words that Mark Twain would happily have applied to himself. And to his imaginary friend, Huck.