Explanations from Barbara Brackman to references
in Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns

Aunt Martha Studios
  This company began in the 1930s and still offers patterns and kits as Kansas City's Colonial Patterns, Inc. They originally ran syndicated columns under names such as "Aunt Ellen", "Aunt Matilda" and others. "Aunt Martha" was the most commonly used name. 

Nancy Cabot
  Nancy Cabot was the name used for patterns in a column in the Chicago Tribune written by Loretta Leitner Rising in the 1930s. Cabot patterns were sold mail-order and in booklets. The patterns were also sold by the Progressive Farmer (see below). Patterns were reprinted in the 60s and 70s. Brackman believes that many of the patterns credited to Cabot are not all correctly attributed.

Ruth Finley
 Old Patchwork Quilts and the Women Who Made Them published in 1929 by J.B. Lippincott, Philadelphia. According to Brackman, this book has been reprinted (1992) by EPM Publications, Inc., Box 490, McLean, VA 22101, Tel: (800)289-2339

Old Chelsea Station Needlecraft Service (OCS)
   This mailorder company began in 1933 and continues to advertise in periodicals although they no longer do many quilting patterns. Quilt patterns were published under names: Alice Brooks, Laura Wheeler and Carol Curtis. Orders were sent to a post office branch in NYC, the "Old Chelsea Station" which gave it's name to the series.

Progressive Farmer 
    A periodical published in Birmingham, AL since 1895. During the 1930s and 40s they sold mail-order patterns under the name "The Spinning Wheel Co." that were identical to the Nancy Cabot patterns. "Nancy Cabot" was a column in the Chicago Tribune in the 1930s. See Brackman's book for more details. 

Rural New Yorker
This was a periodical first begun in 1841 and published by the Rural Publishing Co., New York and continued through the middle of the 20th Century. A quilt pattern column was published under the name of "Mrs. R.E. Smith" from 1930 to 1937. 

Quilters Newsletter Magazine
    Periodical published since 1969 and founded by Bonnie Lehman. 

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Susan
Susan Druding