Gizmo and design?

Sometimes I cannot help myself and buy odd sewing implements just because. This 'just because' item is to mark the length of skirts for hemming.  You place it on the floor next to the worn skirt, squeeze the little puffer and a line of white chalk hits the skirt, then work your way round. Brilliant.

These two mugs are the same size, the same company and the same (ish design). It is odd I didn't notice the difference before (my set is in different colourways). My guess is the top one is the original and they lost the design and asked someone to copy it. Or perhaps they just sent the first one over to China and suggested they reproduce it. Or perhaps it was the other way round, perhaps the 2nd one was the original and someone in the factory said they could improve it a hundred fold. Who knows but this makes it easy for us to see how the traditional designs in quilting have changed over time.

I can imagine a woman going to a friends house, making a pencil sketch of her quilt and going home to copy the idea. This woman might have been a great designer and skilled stitcher herself and improved on the original or she might have just had her sketch to go by and did the best she could.

I have spent a lot of the last year looking at and analyzing old quilts. My first thoughts were perhaps the designs got watered down over time but perhaps, just perhaps it is the other way round.