Quilt Notes: AUNT MARY'S DOUBLE IRISH CHAIN dates back in print to a 1906 booklet of blocks, previously published by Clara Stone in Hearth and Home, according to Barbara Brackman's ENCYCLOPEDIA, where she lists it as a "Four X" block (#2342). It might also fit in with blocks requiring pieced sashing. And though the name may be a bit cumbersome, the design allows nothing superfluous, just the essentials needed for a magnificent geometric tiling pattern, with its perfect reversals of light and dark, integrated effortlessly.

To learn more about this type of quilt design, or to explore "the secrets of interlocking patterns," see Jinny Beyer's DESIGNING TESSELLATIONS. For more "Four-X" blocks (= can be divided by an X into four equal triangles), see at this site, ALASKA, also STARRY PATH and SARAH'S FAVORITE.