I have an older book, 1988 titled The new Quilting & Patchwork Dictionary by Rhoda Goldberg, It has 3 swastika patterns included, each slightly different, but the one like your quilt is titled, Swastika3,Wind Power of Osages. I also have another older book with this pattern as well, unfortunate that one of the most villanous men of all time chose this design to represent his hateful regime.

The other book I mentioned is called Quilting Manual and was published in 1966 by Dover , author Dolores Hinson, in this book it is identified as Wind Power of the Osage as well, there is a brief history which reads " Even the Indians were honored with patterns called Mound Builders, Indian Hatchet,which is a very old pattern, and Wind Power of the Osage.

This is the indian sign. the swastikas was set on point. this is set square.

Snap! I also have this book (an excellent resource). Many cultures have used this symbol....long before Hitler was even thought of....such a shame something that represented good was tipped on it's axis and used to represent such a hideous blight on our world history.

Anyway, use this quilt and love it.....do some research (Wikipedia has an excellent article) and use it as an educational tool to explain to the little ones in your family what this symbol once represented....and then what happened to change it.....Thanks for sharing with us....an interesting and thought provoking thread.

It kind of looks like basket weave.

Perhaps because of the motif it may worth more because others were destroyed and this quilt was made before the war.

My mom grew up in Germany during WWII. This would not be a good choice for our family! I agree the color is less than attractive.

Pre-WWII, and was a very popular block, as it denoted peace and prosperity, and was a symbol of good luck. My boss is a quilt historian, and she buys all the swastika quilts that come her way. It's a shame that it was used for such evil intent.

I have to tell you I was very excited to see this quilt pattern as my parents had one as well! After many years of raising a family, I decided to go back to college. Needless to say, HISTORY became my major. One of my areas of concentration was the Civil War/WWI/WWII era. One required course dealt with Nazi Germany. So, to make the class interesting for my fellow students, I carried my parents "red and white" quilt in to my professor for a bit of "show-n-tell. Well, I was thrilled with the response. My professor told me I should take the quilt to our research center where there was another professor of history that knew quilts. Of course, the quilt made a huge appearance! I was amazed to find out that even though it was referred to as a "Nazi" quilt, it was an American quilt design made from an Indian pattern used long before it became a "Nazi" emblem. This pattern was used during the 1800s to signify agriculture! Interesting, huh? Just thought you might like to know...........thank you for sharing the photos! I hope I was able to shed some light on your family heirloom.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]329940[/ATTACH]Speaking of swastikas, here is a very old fabric in a small antique quilt I have. Yes, it was a good luck symbol ruined by an evil group.