BLOCK PATCHWORK
(Nancy Cabot's version, titled,
"Building Blocks," but the same design)
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Quilt Notes: BLOCK PATCHWORK dates back to the Ohio Farmer, 1894, as a continuous pattern, see Barbara Brackman's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PIECED QUILT PATTERNS (#429). It was illustrated in the Ladies Art Company Catalogue, #361, in the late 1890's. The LAC used a square illustration which extends the side pieces outward, but it then ceases to be a tiling pattern.
This version follows Nancy Cabot's rendering, published in the Chicago Tribune on October 31, 1934, and which she knew as BUILDING BLOCKS. Maggie Malone's 5,500 QUILT BLOCK DESIGNS (#4645), always refreshing and inventive, illustrates this design with two rings merged, and which can be seen in the tiling pattern below, quite magically.
BLOCK PATCHWORK is really a very simple, four-patch block. And even if at first it looks complex, yet it is surprisingly easy to draft on a grid (see illustration left). The off-center, tilted diamonds are exactly the same size as the squares (simply rotated 33°) — happily the grid accomplishes that accuracy effortlessly, creating a perfect hexagon in the background/empty space, and with no need for a protractor or compass, etc.
Comparable designs at this site include:
SQUARE DANCE
DELAWARE CROSSPATCH
CUBE LATTICE
AUNT PATSY'S PET
SHIFTING CUBES
CHINESE PUZZLE
TWIST PATCHWORK
FLYING SQUARES
SARAH'S FAVORITE
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BLOCK PATCHWORK / BUILDING BLOCKS